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.Hail Edition, 



/a o £ 4 






AN EXPOSITION 
» 

OF 

MODERN SPIRITUALISM, 

SHOWING ITS TENDENCY TO A 

Total Annihilation of Ghristiapity. 

WITH OTHER MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS AND 
CRITICISMS, IN SUPPORT OF THE FUNDA- 
MENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE 

CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



By SAMUEL POST, 

LOCUST VALLEY, QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



c^ 



1ST ew- York: 

JAJVCES EGBERT, PRINTER., 331 PEARL ST. 
(FOURTH FLOOR.) 

1861. 



AN EXPOSITION 



OF 



ODERN SPIRITUALISM, 



SHOWING ITS TENDENCY TO A TOTAL ANNIHILATION 
OF CHRISTIANITY; WITH OTHER MISCELLANE- 
OUS REMARKS AND CRITICISMS, IN SUP- 
PORT OF THE FUNDAMENTAL 
PRINCIPLES 

OF THE 

CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

By SAMUEL POST, 

LOCUST VALLEY, QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK. 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

SA3IUEL POST, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of 

New York. 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The author of these few pages offers them with much diffidence, being almost 
entirely unaccustomed to writing, except in private correspondence, it could not be 
expected he should so arrange hrs thoughts as to meet the approbation of a discenrng 
public ; they are ^o brief, a preface is hardly neces-ary, a few words as an imroduc- 
tory note is all that is designed. The writer having had some opportunity of noticing 
many deviations from the path of rectitude, which circumstances beyond his control, 
has i brown in the way of his observation, and being a witness to the de'eterious effects 
on the minds of many, feels disposed to offer the following views and considerations 
to the reader. 

The author being a member of the society of Friends, wishes it di-tinctly under- 
stood, that he alone is responsible for the sentiments contained in the exposition of his 
views. I consider the censorship of the press inimical to civil and religious liberty, 
and anti-republican in its tendency. There are certain inalienable rights that attaches 
to every rational, intelligent being, that cannot be surrendered without an infringe- 
ment on the prerogative, or free agency of man. or of being prejudicial to the best 
interests of society ; to be circumscribed within the narrow limits of the judgment of 
a few individuals, whose opinions are perhaps often at variance with each other. The v e 
being no criterion or stand trd of judgment safer than public opinion, the author pleads 
the liberty of unfolding his own thoughts to an intelligent community, by the agency 
of the press, unshackled by censors even of the highest order of intellectual endow- 
ments vouchsafed to a rational being. An unrestrained freedom of sentiment on all 
subjects interesting to the mind of man, i^ the birthright of every individual, while pub- 
lic opinion will decide upon the merits of every production, and mankind would be left 
free to select from the mass of testimony, that which was cdculated to elevate the 
standard of righteousness, and the advancement of the race, in all that can adorn and, 
dignify the rational and immortal soul of man. /.->.;. 

f V THE A-LT.THQR. 

N: B. The publication of this pamphlet has been wn\ 



40?* ' ^f/. *rs/£S 




. \Wrtltenfor the Plaindealer.] 

RAPPINGS AND SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Notwithstanding the many observations that have met my eye in various 
newspapers in relation to the mysterious rappings and spiritual manifesta- 
tions, (so called,) tending to counteract a very pernicious, and may I not say, 
baneful influence on the minds of the weak and credulous, which they seem 
so peculiarly calculated to produce, I feel disposed to add my mite as a tes- 
timony-bearer against this abomination of the times, which I fear, is on the 
increase , and is spreading far and wide. Having been a resident near the 
place where this, what shall I say, monstrocity first made its appearance, I 
am somewhat familiar with the nature, effect and consequences that it has 
produced on the minds of many in the vicinity where it first emanated, as it 
progressed from one stage of iniquity to another. I do not. presume to say 
that I ever was fully introduced or initiated into all the machinations and 
mysterious operations of its votaries. Far from it, I never would intention- 
ally go amongst them for the purpose of witnessing any of their strange 
doings, rappings or manifestations, but my business associations and connex- 
ions in life brought me in contact with some of its early supporters, so that 
although against my inclination and will, I was reluctantly a witness to some 
of the rappings, and my only regret is, that I do not hold the pen of a ready 
writer, or I would attempt to portray the mystery of iniquity, and unravel 
the dark designs of these benighted wanderers, entangled as they appear to 
be, in a labyrinth, entirely inextricable short of a miraculous display of the 
interposition of Divine Providence ; their minds becoming so absorbed in 
these fearful delusions, that it does really seem measurably to affect, if not 
destroy the rational faculties.' In some instances the reasoning powers have 
been entirely subverted ; presuming to converse with the spirits of the de- 
parted, what wonder is it that their brains should become turned, attempting 
to pry into the mysteries which the Almighty, has reserved to himself, im- 
penetrable as they always have been, and will undoubtedly remain to any 
and all the contrivances of the most scientific. The word " blasphemy" may 
not be exactly appropriate, but for the want of a better I will substitute that 
as being somewhat explanatory of the dreadful wickedness of that mind that 
dare presume thus to trifle with that (may I not say) holy order and unalter- 
able law of the Divinity, and what procedure. I would ask, could poor, frail, 
finite man presume upon, that was calculated to cast so great an indignity on 
the Divine character, as that of attempting to penetrate or lift the veil that 
hides eternity from human eyes, and intercepts all communication with the 
spirit-world while clothed with mortality, or any insight into the abodes of 
the blessed, except in some few instances, in that state described as a trance, 
in which I do not presume to deny or disbelieve. For purposes of his own, 
he has in a few instances, perhaps 1 may say partially, revealed the glories 
of the heavenly state of those who are unclothed of mortality. I say what 
greater, indignity could be cast upon the Divine character, than that of pre- 
suming to enter the spirit-world to converse with the departed, not only of 
their own connexions and friends, but of those of every age of the world, and 
profess or pretend to do it without any assistance of the Almighty. They 
acknowledge no supernatural agency in the undertaking. I have put that 
question closely to them, and as far as my knowledge goes on that point, I 
understand them to say, that in those interviews and communications with 
the departed, they acknowledge no revelation or assistance whatever of the 
Creator, but entirely of themselves independent of God, they presume to 



V^ v \* , s 



1* 

• \ 



enter the celestial mansions and converse with the saints in bliss, and not 
only so, they tell us they find bad spirits .and hold converse with them also, 
and want us to believe they have found out a better way, one that is calcu- 
lated to reclaim the infidel ; privileged as they say they are, of looking into 
and understanding the state of the departed, they can assure the infidel that 
the soul has an existence beyond the narrow confines of the grave, and herein 
they presume to bear testimony to its immortality. They profess to be guided 
in the common concerns of life by the spirits of their departed friends; in 
fact, to be guided in everything both spiritual and temporal, living as it were, 
without God in the world, denying, disbelieving, and of course, paying no at- 
tention to the inward monitor, that witness for God placed in the breast of 
every man by Jehovah himself; that sure guide that will never lead astray, 
if we keep our spiritual eye single to its teachings and directions, as he has 
declared he will teach his people himself, that he will not give his glory to 
another, or his praise to graven images, neither will he give it to any other 
idol of man's creating. 

When we take a view or seriously consider the state of mind of that indi- 
vidual who thus trifles with the mercies and goodness of God, in departing 
from the good old way cast up for the redeemed in every age of the world, 
and this way is said to be so plain, that the wayfaring man, though a fool 
to the wisdom of this world, cannot err therein, or may walk therein and not 
err. It follows us from youth to old age, unless we continue to neglect its 
repeated admonitions, hardening our hearts until we sin out the day of our 
visitation, and the day of grace is past. How easy at all times to ascer- 
tain the pointings of duty, if we will but give a listening ear to a voice, speak- 
ing, as it were from behind us, saying, " This is the way, walk ye in it." This 
attempting to climb up to heaven in any other way than by the way of the 
cross, is no better now than when Jesus Christ was on earth — in that day 
they were declared to be thieves and robbers. This same lying, deceitful 
spirit that so much abounds in the present day, is no new thing, it has pre- 
vailed more or less in all ages of mankind. The scriptures of both the Old 
and New Testament give us an account of similar chai'acters, that deceived the 
people in those days. The witch of Endor raising Samuel, and others termed 
familiar spirits, so that no new thing has happened unto us, except some 
trifling difference in the manner, form or mode of communication. It was a 
lying spirit from the beginning ; it may be compared to an ignis-fatuus that 
dazzles to bewilder, and bewilders to blind. The temptations that lie at the 
bottom of the schemes of some of these mediums (so called) is undoubtedly 
the hope of gain, and this it is that dazzles to bewilder, and must finally lead 
into worse than Egyptian darkness, even down to the chambers of death, 
where the rays of the sun of righteousness never penetrate. A charge is some- 
times, and perhaps often made for obtaining information from departed friends. 
Can it be possible that a rational, accountable, immortal being dare thus to tri- 
fle with its Creator ; the charge or condemnation that was made against Phari- 
saical righteousness in the early ages of Christianity, must be light in compar- 
ison to obtaining money under such pretences, false both to God and man. 

" God never meant that man should scale the heavens by strides of human 
wisdom ;," all the professions of men of science to penetrate the mysteries of 
godliness, or to climb up to look into heaven, must end in disappointment; 
the mysteries of the kingdom always have been hid from the worldly-wise, but 
revealed unto babes. Can we believe that men of science and learning can 
be found, I was about to say, in this enlightened age, but darkened may be 
more appropriate, who would stoop so low as even to attempt an investigation 
of the rappings or spiritual manifestations of the present day, upon any prin- 
ciples of science compatible with common sense, or analogous to the human 



understanding, more especially those who make a profession of the christian 
religion, lowering down the standard of faith below the level of human rea- 
son, even to a belief in, I was about to say, some infernal agency in moving 
tables and chairs round the ro»om by some invisible power, some say by elec- 
tricity; it is altogether immaterial as to the term or name of the power that 
operates upon or moves them, so long as we are confident that the motive 
power is governed by the ingenuity of man, as no stream will rise higher than 
its fountain. What has electricity, animal magnetism, or any otber magnet- 
ism, or even all the powers of attraction combined — they can only operate 
upon that which is material — what is there in the operation of these powers 
analogous to or in any way influential upon the invisible, immortal soul of 
man 1 It is not in flesh to think, or in bones to reason, or the moving of tables 
and chairs round the room, that the soul can be enlightened. In what way 
■or manner could an agency be established between the souls of those who 
now inhabit this globe and the spirits of the departed of all ages ? Not by 
any or all the powers of man, infinite wisdom has placed it beyond our reach, 
then why nut bow to the majesty of heaven, aud accept the conditions of our 
existence as the best the Almighty could bestow upon us. The science of 
man is useful in its proper sphere, but when he attempts to overstep the 
bounds the Almighty has established, he brings down upon himself the just 

judgment of heaven. Junius. 

[ Written for the Plaindealer.~\ 

REPLY TO "JUNIUS." 

Dear Sir — In perusing the able aud finished epistle of your correspondent 
" Junius " in the Plaindealer of the 11th instant, I was particularly surpvised 
at a sentiment contained in the following lengthy paragraph which allow me 
to quote ; " Can we believe that men of science and learning can be found, I 
was about to say in this enlightened age, but darkened may be more appropri- 
ate, who would stoop so low as even to attempt an investigation of the rap- 
pings or spiritual manifestations of the present day, upon any principle of 
science compatible with common sense, or analogous to the human under- 
standing, more especially those who make a profession of the christian re- 
ligion, lowering down the standard of faith below the level of human reason ; 
even to a belief in, I was about to say, in some infernal agency in moving 
tables and chairs round the room, by some invisible power, some say by 
electricity ; it is altogether immaterial as to the term or name of the power 
that operates upon or moves them, so long as we are confident that the motive 
power is governed by the ingenuity of man, as no stream will rise higher than 
its fountain." 

If I understand the writer's meaning aright, the following deduction may 
be obtained from the above paragraph viz : That it is incompatible with 
science, common sense or Christianity, to investigate facts, for the worthy 
" Junius " does not deny that tables do move. He only denies that we have 
a right to know or inquire the cause or agency of their motion, Is this right ? is 
it just 1 is it liberal ? I think not. 

It is never wise to restrict reason on any subject, and the more momentous 
the subject, or the more alarming the tendency, the greater cause for strict 
investigation. Where no reason can be given for a phenomenon, or none at- 
tempted, the credulous and superstitious refer it immediately to supernatural 
agency, impossible of human interpretation. Before the "rappings " became 
so fashionable and universal — when their practice was confined to a very few 
knowing ones, their effect was indeed highly alarming, especially as the man- v 
ifestations were confined mostly to the more illiterate, and consequently more 



superstitious ranks of society. But when such men as Bancroft, Dana and other 
men of their scientific attainments, began to investigate the subject, when the 
subject began to spre%d in the higher circles, and became a fashionable and 
fruitful source of winter-evening amusements in almost every family, city, town 
or village, the awe and mystery that at first enveloped it, began to dissipate, 
and. now it is merely looked upon as a natural phenomenon, susceptible of 
scientific explanations, and promising fair to lift the veil for future useful dis- 
coveries. I would defy -'Junius" to produce three individuals who have 
witnessed the " table movings," and believe their motion emanates from any 
but natural causes. Because the subject is wonderful, and beyond our pres- 
ent comprehension and elucidation, must it be condmned as the machinations 
of the evil-one, and its honest investigators anathematised as blasphemers 1 
Does " Junius " remember how honest Dr. Faustus was consigned to the 
devil by the superstitious old monks, merely, because he was able to produce 
an armful of printed copies of the Bible, while they were writing one 1 If his 
satanic majesty was the inventor of printing, and a promoter of science, as 
Junius and the old monks 'would have us believe, surely " we should give 
even the devil his due," and honor him not only for his self-sacrificing spirit, 
in expediting his own doom, but also for giving to the world an art, at once the 
terror of despotism, ignorance, and superstition — the art of printing. But I 
am not so liberal as " Junius." I am hardly willing to believe Satan supreme 
ruler of this world just yet, nor do I believe the power of peeping through the 
key-hole of Heaven, has been granted to him, more than to us, and if not, by 
What means can he tell us the mysteries thereof? And if this phenomenon 
do not emanate from the enemy of man, but from a good, wise and Omnipo- 
tent God, is it grateful in us to spurn it, and discourage investigation ? I 
think not. 

The very tone of "Junius," the tenor of his letter is calculated to arouse 
the superstition and fear of the credulous. His very warning is an invitation 
to attribute them to a supernatural source (supernal or infernal,) and calcula- 
ted to produce the same melancholy effects that the subject did before it ex- 
ploded ; for man is still the inquisitive and perverse wife of the cruel " Blue 
Beard," give him permission to explore every chamber except the blue 
one, and the blue one will be the first he seeks, though death be the penalty. 
" Junius " seems to attack the subject on two points, distinct in themselves 
though by him confounded ; the one on " spiritual manifestations " the other 
on simple " table moving." The first, was hardly deserving the attention he 
gave it, the second was worthy a more liberal and less bigoted consideration 
than it received. 

We may say, the subject of " spiritual manifestations" has had its day. It 
came up like all unprofitable vegetation, luxuriated oh a fertile soil, and grew 
rank and exhausted itself. Peace be to its manes. Its advocates are desert- 
ing it day by day, and the reports of its mischief are less and less You can- 
not insult one at present more deeply, than by asking him if he believes in 
" spiritual knockings." It was analogous to clairvoyance, it was short lived, — 
died for want of nourishment. Public attention and investigation, is the in- 
falible test — the impartial tribunal of the merits of all questions of doubt. 
Public attention, the grand jury, if you please, of this case, has rejected the 
manifestations ' as unworthy a trial ; but " table moving" has been indicted and 
commanded to appear before a scientific and liberal jury, for farther examina- 
tion. May its jurors be less biased than our friend " Junius " appears to be, 
who obviously has already condemned the accused, without troubling himself 
to investigate its merits. The subject is wonderful, I repeat, and beyond our 
present comprehension — but worthy the consideration and close examination 
of all scientific and enlightened men. That it is supernatural, I deny. That 



it is calculated to do mischief, I also deny, but believe and hope on the contra- 
ry, it may be productive of good. It is only those who know nothing about it, 
that are apprehensive. Let us all remember 

" God moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps on the sea 

And rides upon the storm." 
" God is his own interpreter 
And he will make it plain."— JUSTITIA. 

[ Written for the Plain Dealer.] 

REPLY TO JUSTITIA. 

A writer over the signature of " Justitia," in the Plain Dealer of the 
25th ultimo, takes some exceptions to the article written by " Junius," on 
rapping and spiritual manifestations, quoting a paragraph from " Junius," 
and making his comments on it, and also making some further remarks, in 
accordance with his understanding, or interpertation of the meaning of the 
writer. " Junius" is at a loss to conceive how "Justitia" should arrive at 
the conclusions or interpretations of the paragraph which he emotes ; it ap- 
pears to " Junius" that had he quoted a few lines more, or had he sufficiently 
examined the remainder of the article, he would not have found it necessary to 
have taken up his pen ; " Junius" denies that any just inference can be drawn 
from the paragraph quoted, " that it is incompatible with science, common 
sense, or Christianity, to investigate facts, or that he has set any bounds or 
in any manner attempted to limit or restrict reason from its full and unlimited 
operation and developement in its own sphere, as no stream can rise higher 
than its fountain : revelation I consider is always in accordance with, and 
never contradicts reason. God makes known to or reveals to us the plain path 
of duty through the rational understanding of the invisible immortal soul, 
he has made us free agents, and we are at liberty to dive deep into the arts 
and sciences, to investigate facts, to search into all the hidden mysteries of 
nature, to our heart's content, to examine into chemistry, electricity, the mag- 
netic influence and the whole catalogue of the powers of attraction, to the 
end of the chapter, so long as we confine our enquiries and examinations 
within the bounds that infinite wisdom has designed, and make no attempt to 
pry into mysteries or unlock the secret things that belong unto God. This 
seems to be the stumbling block to " Justitia," as he seems to make no dis- 
tinctions between the knowledge attainable by the natural capacities of hu- 
man intellect ; the natural man with all his acquirements can never under- 
stand the things which appertain to the kingdom of heaven, or take one sin- 
gle step towards the salvation of his own soul independant of God. Con- 
sequently the examination or experiments in order to ascertain the moving 
of the tables is confined to that which is material, and as that which is 
spiritual is as far above that which is material as the heavens are higher than 
the earth. I would ask then if a professor of the christian religion should 
attempt an examination of the cause or principle of natural science, (pro- 
duced by the exercise of the human understanding only) in order to ascer- 
tain what operates on the tables to move them, is not lowering down the 
standard of faith below the level of human reason, because it is so entirely in- 
consistent with reason, to suppose for a moment there is anything superna- 
tural in this exhibition of table moving. 

Justitia says the subject is wonderful ; Junius is of a different opinion, 
the reflecting mind separates it from the supernatural, reducing it to a natural 
cause, and I will put a school boy to solve all that is mysterious about it. 



Although reflecting men immediately separate it from the supernatural, the 
weak and credulous do not, and the very attempt of the scientific man to 
examine into the cause^f table moving is enough in itselt to convince or con- 
firm the weak and credulous, that there is something wonderfully mysterious 
and even supernatural. 

I made some allusion to an infernal agency ; Justitia cannot be serious in 
supposing that Junius is a believer in a devil or satan as a separate evil 
genius, going about seeking whom he may devour ; — I have no belief what- 
ever in any devil except of man's creating, as the good book tells us, that 
when the work of creation was completed, God pronounced all things good, 
and I shall not believe the devil could make himself on purpose to torment 
mankind. Merely because I used the word infernal, and then with but little 
emphasis, Justitia has arraigned me before the public as a believer in the 
devil or a devil, and has written a long paragraph apparently in earnest, as 
though it was an established fact, which I have not time to quote, since 
Justitia has allowed so large a portion of his article in reply to Junius, descant- 
ing on the powers of his Satanic Majesty, he will certainly not feel disposed to 
criminate Junius, if he classes Justitia with the believers in that old adver- 
sary the devil; — as for Junius he has no belief whatever in any evil spirit 
separate from the depravity and wickedness of the rational, invisible, immor- 
tal soul of man, after having tasted or experienced the word of life and the 
powers of the world to come, known something of the joys in heaven, and 
then falls back into the beggarly elements, seeking gratification from the 
depraved propensities of his animial appetites. This is what Junius would 
consider a fallen angel, and every fallen angel is a devil, and there are legions 
of them, the depraved propensities of our common nature are called or term- 
ed devils in the scriptures. 

For instance, I should say the devil of intemperance, the devil of cruelty, 
and a host of others ; these propensities of our nature, the gifts of our crea- 
tor, constituent parts of our being, all good in their proper places and func- 
tions, fulfilling their part in that probationary state of trial here on earth. 
This is all that Junius m'Mnt by the word infernal and I still think appropri- 
ate for this reason, that the first moving of the tables was undoubtedly in- 
vented to establish a belief (in those poor deluded souls who are so weak 
as to lend a listening ear) in the power or capacity of the medium to 
hold converse with the spirits of the departed, whether they called them 
supernatural or not, their object was undoubtedly to give an awe of rever- 
ential feeling to their blasphemous machinations of attempting to hold con- 
verse with those who have passed that bourne from which no traveler re- 
turns, and if the word infernal does not aptly apply to such monstrous 
schemes of abominable wickedness, I would respectfully apply to the more 
enlightened Justitia for a more appropriate word. The Pharisees charged 
Jesus with casting out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils, now what 
should we understand was meant by the Pharisees, by the prince of the de- 
vils, why I should think nothing more nor less than that the greater the 
deception the greater the devil, and it holds good even to this day, the greater 
the deception the greater the danger in all the various transformations of the 
wickedness of ihe human heart, to prey upon the poor deluded soul who is so 
unfortunate as to give credence to these abominations, and so with the whole 
catalogue of crime, mankind imposes upon man. Justitia says " the very tone 
of Junius, the tenor of his letter is calculated to arouse the superstition and 
fear of the credulous;" this assertion of Justitia, Ithink does not require any 
refutation. I submit it to the impartial tribunal of public opinion. 

It appears to Junius that Justitia treats the whole subject as of but little im- 
portance, that he has discovered no disadvantages or evil consequences grow- 



ing out of the "spiritual manifestations:" hear him, "spiritual manifesta- 
tions has had its clay, it came up like all unprofitable vegetation, luxuriated 
on a fertile soil and grew rank and exhausted itself— peace be to its manes." 
It appears to Junius that Justitia has not given the subject sufficient re- 
flection, or he would not so readily cry peace, peace where there is no peace, 
and not suppose the whole subject entirely exploded, and gone to the four 
winds without leaving a vestige of any thing unpleasant behind. I suppose 
at this moment one of the first and most influential of the rappers is now 
residing in the city of New York, living in considerable style from the earn- 
ings in " spirital manifestations," and was quite recently crowded with cus- 
tomers at one dollar the interview. I am informed that from the reports 
of the Lunatic Asylums in the United States there are at the pres- 
ent time upwards of five hundred confined, who are suffering under this aw- 
ful delusion, perhaps hundreds of others more or less affected, families di- 
vided, husbands and wives separated, and incalculable mischief has been and 
is the consequence of this new-fangled witchcraft. And yet Justitia says it 
was hardly worth the attention I gave it. JYlormonism, Millerism and clair- 
voyance united are not in my opinion productive of so much positive evil, 
and are not so offensive in the divine sight, and Justitia having taken up his 
pen in defence of this outrageous and abominable system of iniquity, which 
with some immaterial changes dates back nearly five thousand years. Per- 
haps Justitia would not wish to be considered a believer in spiritual mani- 
festations, yet I shall class him with the defenders of the whole system — " he 
that is not for us is against us." Justitia quotes a few lines of poetry which 
if Junius understands, argues against himself and exactly in favor of the 
sentiments Junius advances, I quote the two last lines : 

" God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 

As Justitia tells us the spiritual manifestations has entirely exploded, does 
he call upon God to assist him to interpret the cause of table moving ? Allow 
me to quote a few words of Justitia, although not exactly in the order of 
time : " Table moving was worthy a more liberal and less bigoted consid- 
eration than it received ;" although Junius is charged with being illiberal, 
superstitious and bigoted, after making a few remarks I shall leave others to 
judge how far these charges are applicable. Junius never for a moment sup- 
posed he was likely to be understood as opposing scientific research or the 
investigation of natural cause and effect, he should extremely regret that 
any barrier should be placed on the human understanding calculated to close 
the way to a thorough investigation of all that can be useful to man. Nev- 
ertheless I should regret to foster an inquisitorial spirit into an acquisition 
of an extensive knowledge of the sciences, solely to gratify the pride and 
vanity of an immortal mind, beyond the limits prescribed by infinite wisdom 
in the regulation and government of the spiritual faculties. 

Some great genius may be yet in embryo, that shall entirely revolutionize 
the settled order of things, and may be ranked with a Newton, a Franklin, 
a Fulton, and a host of others, who shine as constellations of the first mag- 
nitude in the galaxy of human intellect. Junius feels no disposition to fet- 
ter the intellectual faculties of man, being created a rational intelligent be- 
ing and having conferred on him the invaluable blessing of free agency, and 
furnished with a knowledge of the will of his Creator, with a capacity to 
perform it, or in the more refined language of the poet : 

" He gave him in this dark estate, 

To see the good from ill ; 

And binding nature fast in fate 

Left free the human will." JUNIUS. 



EXHIBITION OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM, 

When the writer of %n article, published in the Glen Cove Plain Dealer of 
the 11th of Third mo. (March) 1853 on the subject of " Rappings and spirit- 
ual manifestations," signed Junius, he had no expectation of adding anything 
to it, by way of further elucidation of the author's views on that subject, 
until he observed a writer over the signature of Justitia, had replied to 
Junius, defending, or perhaps rather excusing the believers in this modem 
spiritualism and table moving, and calculated to encourage a further investi- 
gation into the mysteries of iniquity, or in other words, of table moving, which 
to me appeared prejudicial to the best interests of society, and I wrote an arti- 
cle in reply, over the same signature of Junius, and forwarded it for publica- 
tion, the editor objected to publish on account of its length, yet 1 suppose two 
columns would have contained sufficient space. The author of the two arti- 
cles over the signature of Junius, having since noticed some other observa- 
tions and remarks on this subject, from different writers, tending rather to 
increase the evil, by encouraging a belief in the spiritual manifestations or 
communications (so called,) with the spirits of the departed, that on reflection 
I have thought of publishing in pamphlet form, the two articles over the 
signature of Junius, including Justitias' remarks in reply to Junius, with 
some additional remarks on the same subject, and also to make some 
remarks and present views on other subjects in defence and in support 
of Christianity, and in immediate divine revelation. I shall proceed in 
the first place to make a few additional remarks and present some con- 
siderations in relation to this wide-spreading and desolating theory of the 
imagination, presuming to converse with the spirits of the departed, in de- 
fiance of revelation, of scripture, of reason, and of common sense. Notwith- 
standing some learned men may be ranked as defenders or expounders of this 
new-fangled witchcraft, a name or an appellation much more appropriate than 
spiritual manifestations. 

Charles Beecher, pastor of the First Congregational Church, Newark, New 
Jersey, has published a review of the spiritual manifestations, read before the 
Congregational Association of New York and Brooklyn, in which he treats the 
subject in a more learned manner, by an extensive research into the records 
of antiquity, than has been attempted by most if not all other writers that, 
have met my observation, coming from such high authority and from a miud 
stored with learning, it may be thought perfectly presumptuous for an illite- 
rate person who makes no pretension to learning, and a very limited know- 
ledge of the sciences, to attempt to analyse a production emanating from such 
high authority, and even to attempt a refutation of some of the most impor- 
tant conclusions and arguments, behind which the learned author of the re- 
view seems to have entrenched himself; nevertheless, with his permission to 
quote so much of his book as may be necessary to contrast our views, concep- 
tions or understanding of the texts quoted, confining myself mostly to scrip- 
ture quotations (and inferences declucible from them,) which may be considered, 
to bear upon the subject. 

It may be proper for me to premise so much as to say that I dissent from- 
most of the reviewer's deductions from scripture. Before I quote either from 
the review or from scripture, I wish to notice a term, principle or agent, call- 
ed odyle, the name given by " Baron Reichenbach of Vienna, to a new agent 
identified with animal magnetism," which the author of the review, if I un- 
derstand him considers the fundamental principle on which his theory is bas- 
ed ; that this o-dylic agency or condition of the spiritual faculties is the med- 
ium through which the demon or spirit enters the abode of that spirit, which 
is still clothed with mortality. I shall not attempt to follow the author of 
2 



10 

the review through all his different hypothesis or even to refer or quote from 
all the different authors which the learned reviewer has cited, in order to prove 
a possibility, that these modern " spiritual manifestations" are a positive rea- 
lity, or if not absolutely to prove it, to bring up that kind of evidence, which 
if it proved any thing, is intended to favor or increase the belief in this 
visionary scheme or modern invention of spiritual nonsense, leading the minds 
of the weak and credulous into a belief, that it must of course be a reality 
when such men as Beecher, Edmonds and Talmage undertake to defend it, 
or at least to excuse those that are pursuing it with avidity as the only hope 
of salvation, as though God had forgotten that he had ever created such a 
being as man, or if he had been the means of bringing him into existence, he 
had nothing more to do with him after that, but had left Mm to shift for himself, 
without any interference, or guidance on his part that both with regard to 
his temporal and spiritual well-being he had nothing to do, and of course took 
no cognizance. 

My first quotation is from page 15 as follows, "Now the brain of the medi- 
um may be odylic rapport with the brain of some inmate of a Lunatic asylum, 
or of some visionary enthusiast or monomoniac, and thus apparently, receive 
communication from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine or any other remark- 
able individual, or it may be en rapport with some brain dreaming, or drug- 
ged, or pathetised, or hallucinated, or intoxicated, or even highly poetic and 
enthusiastic, and thus receive the impress of a counterfeit personality. Thus 
any high wrought cerebral excitement may telegraph itself across the globe, 
upon any other brain in due odylic rapport, and communicate intelligence of 
then passing events. 

As to events so far in the past that they cannot exist in form of impressions 
on any living brain, it is only necessary to conceive that they have recorded 
themselves eternally upon the all-pervading odylic medium. They may leave 
their impress, not cognizable indeed by sense, but real, just as if the shadow 
at which Eve gazed in the fountain had remined a fixed though unsubstantial 
form of beauty, after she departed for ever ; — or as a fixed star might shine 
for us years after passing from existence. The brain of the medium or its 
odylic co-efficient, or other half comes into such a susceptible state that all 
these phantoms hid in odylic suspension, as it were, type themselves, thereon, 
and are given forth. And even future events, in some such way, may be 
sensed upon the brain. 

In confirmation of this, it is found that as anciently oracles could be found 
only in certain localities ; as only in some regions the divining rod in the 
hands of the sensitive is affected ; as in some localities only the Phenomenon 
of haunted houses occur, according as the mundane imponderable emanations 
vary ; so in some localitiesthe " manifestations can be had with greater facility 
than others, the difference being appreciable sometimes in different parts of 
the same house. By these principles all communications received through 
rapping, tipping, writing and speaking mediums are accounted for." 

Our author attempts to explain or to exhibit some new phases in the phe- 
nomena of the present day by supposing the spontaneous operation of the 
brain without mind, " being indistinguishable from mental operations pro- 
per," consequently intelligible to the natural understanding of the medium, 
and perhaps not considered subject to the will or control of the individual, 
and goes on to reason that perhaps with the assistance of the odylic co- 
efficient agency a principle is established by which we can account for, or un- 
derstand, the influences that operate upon the mind of the medium. 

Notwithstanding these explanations do not appear to be entirely relied on 
as we find Pages 30 and 31, " that if we admit that the phenomena are the 
work of spirits at all, and the conclusion cannot be resisted that they are dis- 



11 

embodied spirits. For what do the facts conceded imply that the embodied 
spirits can do 1 " it can, by some means, appear at a distance from its own 
body, speak audibly, h%ar answers, move bodies, perform on instruments, and 
do whatever it would do through the body if that were present. It can ob- 
tain access to the contents of other minds, reveal distant events, present and 
fftture. But if so, the further concession of a temporary going forth of soul 
from body cannot long be withheld. 

In relation to our author's, pneumatic hypothesis, I shall not attempt to 
argue the question of the practicability of an intercourse with the spirit world 
or with disembodied spirits whether good or evil ; upon scientific principles, as 
I contend that the science of men is altogether inadequate to explore the spirit- 
ual condition of disembodied spirits, or of spirits that never were incarnate, (if 
there be any such) we might with as much propriety argue that Jacob's 
ladder was made of wood or some other material on which the Angels of God 
ascended and descended, or that our modern reformers had invented a tin tube 
or speaking trumpet reaching from earth to heaven. Because if the science 
of men can presume to establish (by some material aid) an intellectual com- 
munion between earth and heaven, it must of course pass through the organs 
of a material body of flesh and blood, as it has been declared in scripture that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, and I trust have never 
been and never will be made the organ of communication between embodied 
and disembodied spirits, either good or evil, except by some miraculous inter- 
position of a supernatural power. 

An important injunction seems appropriate, " man know thyself enough for 
man to know ; " that is that the powers of man are finite, they are limited, why 
presume to stretch beyond the boundary line, established in the Providence of 
Uod since the beginning of the creation. I shall contend that man, and more 
especially in his unredeemed state, has no means or power to penetrate the 
sacred inclosure of the spirit world, and send back to earth a rule of faith and 
practice, or to obtain it from thence by any medium whatsoever. The most 
splendid abilities of the natural understanding, can reach no higher than the 
reasoning powers, yet the smallest revelation from the fountain of wisdom, 
shows us the insufficiency of aspiring above, or beyond the sphere, in which 
we have been placed^ " secret things belong unto the Lord, but those that are 
revealed to us and to our children for ever." 

I am well aware that volumes have been written claimed as intelligence 
-from the spirit world. I regard them all as the visions of deluded men, and 
shall presume to stamp them as being of no higher origin than the effervesence 
of the bewildered brain of the monomaniac, the imagination becoming heated 
even to phrenzy, and being influenced by a fiery zeal ; for what else in the cata- 
logue of evils that have ever been introduced amongst men, could have pro- 
duced such a vast amount of misery, to the human family in so short a space. 
Continually persisting in a fool-hardy manner against a light more bright and 
terrible than the light of the snn shining in meridian splendor on the ten- 
der susceptibilities of the inner man, teaching us the way to the kingdom, in- 
dependent of any medium between us and the spirit of Jehovah — he has 
never surrendered his power to finite man in the work of salvation, allowing 
him to scale the heavens by strides of his own wisdom. I have never found a 
passage of scripture either in the old or new Testament that favored the 
views of the spiritualists and even Jamblichus and Cicero with Baron 
Heichenbach, are quoted as authority for some agency, call it odylic, or what 
they please, I shall place no confidence in their opinions, as great men are not 
always wise, and some of these ancient writers, I consider no better authority 
than heathen mythology. I shall contend that the generations that have 
more recently preceded us, or even down to our own time, are as competent 



12 

to judge in regard to the spiritualities of our own times, as ages more re- 
mote, as in the dark ages of the church many absurdities prevailed. 

Residing in the country, I have not convenient access to many ancient 
writers ; in the consideration of this subject, I consider it unnecessary to quote 
them, we have sufficient evidence before our eyes, our spiritual faculties were 
fnrnished in order to enable us to judge with the evidence afforded, in all that 
relates to the well-being of the present and future condition of the soul, if we 
keep a single eye to the revelating principle of light pure from the fountain. 
We read that " it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps." Let me 
respectfully enquire to whom we shall apply for counsel and direction in our 
pilgrimage through time, if not to the Power that gave us a being? What 
man in the full possession of his mental faculties, dare presume to consult 
with a medium for the purpose of learning what to do or how to demean him- 
self before his fellow men, or to console' himself in affliction, or for direction 
in the way of salvation ! I hold that it is not presuming too much to say 
that the modern spiritualist hides his light under a bushel, or in other words 
shuts himself up from the greater light of revelation, depending on the lesser 
light, even the feeble lamp of reason, and may be truly said to be groping in 
darkness at noon day. 

Who could have believed that the two great evils of Mormonism and 
modern spiritualism, originating in about the same latitude and nearly the 
same longitude, should have found so many votaries amongst an intelligent 
population, where, if we may judge of their progress in experimental religion, 
by outward observation, by their systematic fulfilment of all the outward 
rituals, and where a vast amount of money has been expended in the erec- 
tion of splendid churches, and liberal endowments have been made for the 
establishment of schools of every grade, of seminaries and universities, stimu- 
lating the intellectual faculties, in the attainment of knowledge, and of scien- 
tific research into the hidden mysteries of nature, as well as the study of 
theology. I would say that under all these favorable circumstances (as some 
may argue) for the advancement of the race, it is remarkable, that so much 
encouragement was given to such extravagant pretensions. If Mormonism 
and modern spiritualism, are not exactly assimilated in the character of the 
evils which they produce, they might in some degree be considered in juxta- 
position with regard to the various deviations from the original standard of 
the christian faith. Notwithstanding the enormous iniquities practiced 
amongst the Mormons, 1 have no doubt that the pretensions of the spiritual- 
ists are far more offensive in the Divine sight. 

Not expecting the spiritualists will honor my judgment, T shall neverthe- 
less pursue the even tenor of my way in bearing a faithful testimony against 
modern spiritualism as being productive of the greatest innovation on the 
mode or manner of supernal communion, as having access to the spirit world 
independent of all the powers that be ; the magnitude of the offence to the 
majesty of heaven, must exceed the comprehension of a finite being. 

The novelty of the subject matter under consideration, I hope may in some 
degree excuse the writer for a little repetition, notwithstanding my unquali- 
fied disbelief in the assumed position of the spiritualists, I am not disposed 
flatly to contradict them without assigning some reasons for my opposition to 
such unhallowed warfare against the christian faith. 

If Beecher is disposed to call all incredulists in modern spiritualism, disbe- 
lievers in the Bible, and the doctrines it inculcates, he may find it difficult to 
exclude himself; can it be for a moment supposed that the Bible writers who 
wrote by inspiration, had any other belief in necromancy, other than it ex- 
isted in that day and was practised (or at least they presumed to hold con- 
verse with the dead) the same as iu this day.; but that no sane man in this- 



13 

or any other day will presume to say that the Bible writers really believed that 
ancient necromancers had power to communicate with departed spirits, 
whether good or evil,«or to call them up, while the same power or privilege 
was denied the mass of mankind. No, I shall denounce it as downright 
hlasphemy, and as casting an indignity on the characters of these holy men 
of old, because the authors or writers of .scripture, record it as a historical 
fact, that conjurers, necromancers and wicked men existed in that day, they 
did not approbate their mysterious arts. The burning of the books at Ephe- 
sus was undoubtedly through the influence of Paul's preaching. Beecher, in 
reference to these books on curious arts, calls them valuable manuscripts, that 
Jamblichus had probably read them, and being a believer, or at least not 
altogether incredulous with regard to their contents. He thus speaks of the 
effects on the mediums : " Some are agitated throughout the wbole body, 
others again, are entirely quiet, sometimes there are pleasing and harmonious 
dances, and according voices, and sometimes the reverse." Again, the body 
either appears taller, or larger, or is borne aloft through the air, or is affected 
by the opposite of these. Beecher says, page 38. From the characteristics 
here and elsewhere noted by this author, it is evident that the "mediums" 
now are like those of the remotest antiquity. Beecher, in writing a creed for 
the spiritualists, says, page 40 : " This doctrine of obsession being the uni- 
versal faith of the old world, we are prepared to understand the language of 
the Bible, the reality of necromancy being the universal belief, there is no 
vestige of incredulity in the Bible, if never inserts " pretended or so called." 
A modern spiritualist could not use its dialect of implicit confidence, without 
a blush or an apology." 

If Beecher could prove from the records of Scripture, that many in that day 
believed that these pretended workers of miracles, were in fact what they 
called them — a perfect reality — or they wished the people to believe them to 
be so for the hope of gain — the same as in the present day. If no one be- 
lieved them we should soon come to the end of the chapter. It cannot for 
one moment be supposed that the whole mass of mankind, probationers of 
earth when the Scriptures were written, had one uniform belief in necro- 
mancy, or divining, or the working of miracles, independent of an Almighty 
power, God forbid. The same causes produce the same effects in all ages of 
mankind, and these workers of iniquity in every age, are denounced by the 
Wise and the good as enemies of God and deceivers of men, on whom the 
judgments of heaven ever has and ever will descend. 

The writers of those books, on curious arts, that were burned at Ephesus, 
were probably converted by the preaching of Paul, and they consented to 
burn them, as bearing a testimony to their pernicious tendency- — as they 
were probably written for the purpose of gain, under the existence of an ex- 
citement of the public mind, influenced by the popular superstitions of that 
day. 

The temptations to evil being the same in every age, the serpentine wis- 
dom of man, if allowed the preponderance in the soul, leads its poor deluded 
victim, into the intricate mazes of every visionary and deceptive entangle- 
ment into which the imagination of fallen man is continually prone to wander ; 
the feeble lamp of reason not affording sufficient light to guide him in the 
way of salvation. Man being created in the image of God, elevated in the 
scale of being above all orders of animated nature, having in addition to the 
rational powers, which properly constitute the natural man, the vital spark 
of divinity, a portion of that immaterial essence, that raises him above the brute, 
and constitutes him Lord of God's creation here on earth ; and it is through 
the medium of the intellectual powers, (formed from the five senses,) that 
God operates upon the soul, revealing his will with indubitable clearness, 



14 

that can never be mistaken. When we contemplate the invaluable privilege 
with which we are endowed, that of knowing the .will of our Creator in all 
that relates to our present and future well being, why is it that we are not 
satisfied with the condition in which God has been pleased to place us 1 and 
be willing to depend on the teachings of his own spirit, rather than to endea- 
vor to soar into unknown regions to converse with disembodied spirits, who 
have never been commissioned to hold intercourse with us. What a bold 
presumption, that poor frail finite man should dare to interfere with the estab- 
lished order of Divinity, seeking intelligence through forbidden sources, as 
though God had refused to teach his people himself. 

I have no hesitation in asserting that these pretensions of conversing with 
the dead is equally as illusory as a common sleeping dream, and may be 
properly called the waking dream or vision of the monomaniac whose imag- 
ination has become so bewildered that the vague presentment of words or 
sentiments apparently from some disembodied spirit whom he presumes, or 
perhaps really believes to be spoken to him, when at the same time it is 
nothing more or less than his own imagination of what the spirit should say, 
or at least what he wishes it to say. This I consider to be the most inoffen- 
sive state of the moderen spiritualist, but when in the perfect use of all the 
faculties natural and spiritual, if it were possible, they presume to hold con- 
verse with disembodied spirits either good or evil, I pronounce downwright 
blasphemy. I consider the state and condition of modern spiritualists of all 
grades to be dangerous in the extreme. 

The reader will not understand me as classing Beecher with the spiritual- 
ists, although his exposition or explanation of their claims, has led me in some 
instances, perhaps, to reply to him as believing in the possibility of spiritual 
intercourse, or at least of sustaining an hypothesis by a learned investi- 
gation and defence of the claims put forth by them, and has allowed in his 
exhibition of their views an inte rcourse at least with demoniac spirits. 
Why endeavor to produce evidence to prove a demoniac correspondence and 
not allow, or seek to discover, sufficient evidence to prove that the virtuous 
and the good enjoyed the same privilege 1 This summing up of Beecher is 
in contradiction to the views of all spiritualists. 

Having admitted so much in their favor as reluctantly to stamp it a delu- 
sion, if a delusion he says : " it is a very strong delusion," the evidence be- 
fore their minds is very specious, very strong. Page 75 he says, " chris- 
tian humility should teach us that if we have not been-deluded, it is of grace, 
and that we be not high minded, but fear." We should meet them with 
argument. We should admit all facts sustained by proper evidence, and 
show them that the word of God has a deeper foundation, and a broader 
basis in the nature of things, than they, or we have hitherto been aware. 
And if the result shall be to lead christians to a more patient and profound 
re-investigation of the doctrine of the resurrection and future life, and con- 
nected themes, God, who brings good out of evil, may bring benefit out of 
even this." 

It has been suggested to me, that it is useless to attempt, to reason with a 
spiritualist, his mind being under a state of hallucination. 

It will no doubt be perceived that my remarks on this subject, are not 
particularly directed to a confirmed spiritualist, but are intended as a warn- 
ing to all in the least degree disaffected on the great subject of the fundamen- 
tal principles of the christian religion. I do not admit of any spiritual inter- 
course between embodied and disembodied spirits, under any contingency, by 
the unassisted powers of the rational understanding. I have undertaken 
to prove that modern spiritualism is calculated to undermine the foundation 
of the christian religion, and my argument is based upon the assumption that 



15 

God has not vouchsafed to man the privilege of holding converse with dis- 
embodied spirits, under any agency or medium "whatsoever, it is abundantly 
evident that the condition of our existence, precludes the possibility of spir- 
itual intercourse. 

I hold that no man perfectly sane, and in the full possession of all his 
faculties, uncontaminated by any baneful influence of surrounding circum- 
stances, can become a spiritualist, because modern spiritualism is a delusion. 
There must be some defect in the understanding, not being properly balanced 
by the rational faculties, in consequence of a departure from a reliance on the 
only principle that sustains and guides a rational and immortal soul, viz : 
the light that has been so repeatedly declared enlightens every man com- 
ing into the world. 

Thus by declaring our independence, in exercising our free agency, de- 
pending on the rational faculties to guide us not only in temporals but spir- 
ituals It is through this door that modern spiritualism has been introdu- 
ced. I contend there is no authority in the Bible, calculated to establish a 
belief in necromancy, witchcraft, or cqnsulters of departed spirits, that was 
ever sanctioned in any age by the wise and the good. I also believe that God 
has never been without a witness to the truth, even in the darkest ages, some 
could be found to bear a testimony against the evils prevalent in the day in 
which they lived. While endeavoring to prove that modern spiritualism is 
calculated to annihilate the christian religion, I have never supposed it ne- 
cessary to attempt any investigation of the rappings or of table moving, or the 
moving of anything material, upon scientific principles, in order to ascertain 
what power operated upon them. I hold that they afford no evidence what- 
ever of any spiritual intercourse with the spirits of departed friends, as no 
man in his sober senses can for one moment believe anything supernatural in 
them. They are nothing more than a species of jugglery, which has been 
practiced more or less in the various ages of the world. To attempt an in- 
vestigation of them is in my humble opinion beneath the dignity of a chris- 
tian. Necromancers, diviners, magicians and soothsayers, and others of a 
similar character, have been deceiving the credulous, almost from time im- 
memorial, but it is only the credulous that they can deceive, as we read in 
the scriptures* that " there is a spirit in man and that the Amighty giveth 
it. an understanding," and for what purpose is this knowledge given if it 
be not to reveal to us the way of salvation, and afford sufficient light to 
detect the various deceptions and conjurations these poor deluded mortals, 
have always attempted to impose upon their fellow men, without the aid of 
any scientific investigation ? I am fully persuaded that no good man whose 
mind is enlightened by the power of Truth, will stoop so low as to attempt 
to search into these pretended mysteries which onlythe initiated presume to ex- 
plain. Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and can we believe that 
he will withhold any good from his devoted servants, engaged in the promo- 
tion of universal righteousness, that would enable them to understand all 
the various transformations of antichrist. It appears to me, as I have be- 
fore observed, that a christian would be lowering down the standard of faith 
in presuming upon any assistance from science or philosophy, in order to ob- 
tain a more full understanding of these abominations. The scriptures of 
Truth afford abundant evidence that the position I have taken is correct, that 
God has always been ready to reveal to his devoted servants, in every age, 
the working of antichrist in all its deviations and transformations, because it 
is asserted that these emissaries of satan, or in other words, the combined 
powers of darkness personified, would if it were possible deceive the very 
elect, but that is not possible. Therefore I conclude it is not necessary to 
appeal to the wisdom of man to enable us to understand the mysteries of 



16 

iniquity. If I thought proper to consult the wisdom or science of men I 
might refer to professor Faraday and others who have detected some of 
their impositions. 

The reader will perceive that in a brief review of Beecher's pamphlet, I do 
not confine myself strictly to the character of the spirits communicating, 
whether good or evil, as I conclude it will not be questioned that he endea- 
vors to prove, or he at least admits, that the modern spiritual manifestations 
are entitled to a degree of credence, sufficient to induce him to take up his 
pen to review them, and if he admits the possibility of communion between 
embodied and disembodied spirits, I have not neither shall I attempt to dis- 
tinguish between them, whether good or evil, as I considei myself warranted 
in asserting that from the commencement of this new theory of spiritual com- 
munion, the spiritualists have presumed to hold converse with both good and 
evil spirits. Beecher says, page 74, that " whatever be the character of the 
powers communicating, there is no objection to hear all they have to say. If 
they can logically destroy the authority of the word of God and the truth of 
evangelical doctrines, let them do it." 

Notwithstanding he may have attempted to explain the manner, mode, or 
medium of some of these communications in a different way from the spiriual- 
ists, I shall class them all under one head (except the trance state, or of 
some ramarkable dream,) as the visionary schemes of deluded men. 

The reader will probably take notice that I have not quoted a single sen- 
tence from any " spiritual communication or manifestation " (so called) in order 
to refute them by any argument of mine, for the very good reason that I am 
not willing to admit that they have any foundation in fact ; but are the pro- 
ductions of visionary and speculative minds. 

The consultation of oracles alluded to by the author of the review, I should 
quote as authority to prove that a greater deception was never practiced on 
poor deluded man (except modern spiritualism,) I acknowledge the consulta- 
tion of oracles prevailed amongst the ancients extensively, and a vast amount 
of wealth expended by a weak and credulous generation. " The oracle of 
Apollo, at the city'of Delphi, was .established at an unknown and very remote 
period of antiquity. This city was near the Gulf of Corinth, in a solitary 
recess of Mount Parnassus, where was a cavern, from which arose sulphurous 
gas, supposed to possess the power of imparting prophetic inspiration. A 
female called the Pythia seated on a three legged stool, called a tripod, was 
exposed to the fumes of the gas, and in this condition her wild and unmean- 
ing responses were recorded by the cunning priests who reported them to 
suit their own purposes. An immense power was thus wielded by the priests 
of Apollo, who ministered at this altar of superstition for a series 'of ages ; 
and enjoyed the wealth here lavished by a deluded people." The author of 
the review attempts to prove that the oracles were genuine, I am not aware 
that any one doubts that oracles (so called) existed for many generations, and 
were consulted abundantly on all important occasions, particularly in war, 
yet I consider that is not the question at issue, the question is, whether 
they had any power to foretell future events, or were possessed with powers 
of prophetic inspiration. Notwithstanding the mighty array of authority 
brought forward by the author of the review to prove the oracles genuine, I 
dare presume to believe that they were never endued with any powers of pro- 
phetic inspiration, but one of the greatest deceptions the world ever witnessed, 
nevertheless I will quote his authority (page 47) he says " the genuineness 
of the oracles is conceded by Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of 
Alexandria, Titian, Clemens, Alexandrihus, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, 
Chrysostom, Cyril Alexaudrinus, and others of the Greek Fathers, and by 
Manucius Felix, Cyprian, Turtullian, Lactantius, Maternus, Firnicius, Je- 



17 

Tome, Augtistine, and others of the Latin. Thus Augustine — " They (the spir- 
its) for the most part foretell what they are about to perform, for often they 
receive power to send diseases by vitiating* the atmosphere. Sometimes they 
predict what they foresee by natural signs, which signs transcend human sense ; 
others they learn, by outward and bodily tokens, human plans, even though un- 
spoken, and thus foretell things to the astonishment of those ignorant of the 
existence of such plans." It will be here perceived that the predictions of the 
oracles were often dependent on nothing more than outward observation of the 
signs of the times, and reasoning from consequences they venture to predict 
what almost any intelligent person could do, under simi'ar circumstances, the 
same as cloudy weather indicates rain. If there ever was any advantage to be 
derived from the consultation of oracles, why not advocate the introduction of 
them, in this fruitful age of inventions. I shall conclude that but very few could 
be found in this nineteenth century, with sufficient faith to advocate the intro- 
duction of such an absurdity. I think it may be properly considered obsolete. 
The author of the review seems to confound dreams of every description, tran- 
ces, clairvoyance and spiritual rappings, and place them all under one head. 
That the almighty has at times seen meet to visit individuals in dreams, and 
in what is termed a trance, I don't presume to deny ; for purposes of his own, 
he condescends to visit his rational and intelligent family, in such ways as his 
infinite wisdom perceives to be best, in order to introduce the rational immor- 
tal soul into a more perfect acquaintance with himself, by the immediate- 
teaching of the holy spirit. In relation to the state of the soul in a trance 
the author of the review observes, " But if so the further concession of a. 
temporary going forth of soul from body cannot long be withheld." I should, 
not attempt to discourage a belief in a temporay separation of soul and body, 
as described in the trance, but only a disbelief in the power of man, by all his 
acquirements in the sciences, or all the knowledge within the reach of his 
natural understanding, to separate the soul from the body, and reunite them 
again at his pleasure, or by all the combined powers of the natural understand- 
ing, unlock the mysteries which the all-wise Creator has reserved to himself. 
I shall pronounce it blasphemy, a presumption which must in the end be 
productive of incalculable mischief in the human family, as well as destructive 
to the peace of that soul that attempts to interfere with the established order 
of things. 

Page 31 of the review, in this way Cicero accounts for prophetic dreams, " In 
dreams the soul hath a vigor free from sense and disinthralled of every care, 
the body lying deathlike. And since she hath existed from all eternity, and 
been acquainted with innumerable minds, she beholdeth all things that are in 
rerwn natura." 

The author of the review says, "All the writings of antiquity are eloquent 
with this grand idea." I would ask with what grand idea % can it be possible 
that such an idea was ever entertained by a rational intelligent being, that the 
souls of all that have ever inhabited this earth, have existed from all eternity 
and been acquainted with innumerable minds % I quote further, '*• But once 
admit this of the soul before death, and how can it be denied after." I could 
with difficulty bring my mind to believe that a being endowed with reason, 
ever will admit the soul has been endued with such unlimited powers, " what 
can we reason but from what we know V "Take for example (says the 
reviewer) the instance given by Cicero, as a favorite with the stoics : two 
Arcadians stopped at Megara, one at an Inn, the other at a friend's. At 
midnight, the former appeared to the latter, asking help, for the Innkeeper 
was about to murder him. Roused in affright the latter thought it a dream 
and again slept ; his friend again appeared, asking him, as he had not come to 
him alive, to avenge him dead ; as the Innkeeper had now slain him,, and con- 
3 



^18 

cealed his body in a cart under dirt. In the morning he met the cart as 
directed, found the corpse, and the Innkeeper was executed." " Here, if it 
be admitted that the soul appeared at a distance from the body before death, 
how can it be denied, that it did the same after? " 

I shall not suppose the author of the review will find many believers that the 
soul appeared at a distance from the body before death, or that either the soul 
or body of one of the Arcadians visited the other, while in a state of profound 
sleep, and at some distance from the abode of the other. I shall attempt to 
account for this miraculous dream in a very different manner. That the 
invisible omnipresent God beholding the danger or situation of the Arcadian 
at the Inn, warns the other in a dream, but he not heeding or comprehending 
the meaning, that it was anything more than a common dream, again slept, 
when his friend appeared to him again in a dream, the same as before, only 
informing him that the Innkeeper had murdered him and concealed his body 
in a cart under dirt, which in the sequel appeared to be a perfect reality, 
and the Arcadian who had witnessed this remarkable dream, when he arose 
in the morning fully believed in the truth of it, and proceeded as directed, 
to search for the body in the cart under the dirt, and found it, and the 
Innkeeper was executed. Now it would appear that had he believed the first 
dream to have been a warning, in order to save the life of his friend, and had 
he attended to it, undoubtedly his life would have been saved, for it is proved 
conclusively that he believed in the second and acted accordingly, and it was 
fully verified. 

I now quote from the review, pages 33 and 34, " Yet if such converse with 
the dead be admitted, in one well-authenticated instance, the whole apneu- 
matic argument falls, one of the facts most relied on by the apneumatic ar- 
gument is the misspelling, which it is asserted always follows the habit of 
the medium. Such, however, is not the fact. Cases are on record of mis- 
spelling communications coming through mediums who could spell correctly, 
much to their chagrin. But even if the fact were as claimed, it might be ac- 
counted for either by supposing that illiterate mediums attracted illiterate 
spirits, or by supposing that spirits, in order to communicate, are obliged par- 
tially to incarnate themselves in the body of the medium, and to take on, in 
;part, its organic or mental habits. So also the influence of drugs, manipula- 
tions, diseases. The pneumatic theory is, that as the soul may, by these 
means be assisted, or disabled, in the use of its own brain, so disembodied 
spirits may, in the use of an invaded brain. When the odylic conditions are 
by these means prepared, the spirit can insinuate itself; when they are by 
these means destroyed, it is compelled to forego its bold. So in regard to 
.nervous epidemics. The theory is that these may exist without the agency 
of disembodied spirits. But that when they exist, developing proper odylic 
conditions, spirits may be expected to take advantage of them ; hence to find 
cases of nervous epidemics where no indications of spiritual agency are appa- 
rent, proves nothing except that the odylic conditions were not favorable. ' 

With regard to this last quotation from Beecher's review of modern spirit- 
ualism, if I understand him, he seeks to establish the belief that there may 
be a possibility of establishing an intercourse or correspondence between the 
wicked and depraved spirits yet clothed with mortality ; what if I should say 
with all the departed spirits of the damned that ever inhabited this earth> for 
nearly six thousand years, and not only so, but that spirits either good or bad 
that never were incarnate, taking advantgae of what he calls a favorable odylic 
condition, may enter into, and take possession of, the soul ; now it appears to 
the writer, that if the author of the review does not believe his own hypothe- 
sis, he is putting forth his intellectual powers to their utmost expansion to 
induce others to believe in it. As though this awful delusion needed a voice 



19 , 

from the pulpit to strengthen its deluded votaries in this unhallowed warfare 
against Christianity — as though poor frail finite man, could hope to scale 
the heavens by strides of human wisdom, and reveal to us the state of the 
departed, in whatever state of happiness or misery, for they appear to stop 
short of nothing to accomplish their ends. They ask no favors of the Al- 
mighty or of mortal man. Let this spirit of delusion gain the ascendency 
and universal chaos would reign over Christendom, having no acknowledged 
head, they are of course launched upon a boundless ocean of visionary specu- 
lations, of doubts and perplexities, with no compass or reliable chart, and 
placing no dependence on. or at least utterly refuse " to eye the great Pole 
star, what hope to make the land of life." They are liable to be driven on 
the quicksands of despair, and to make shipwreck of both soul and body. 

" What in me is dark 
Illumine, what is low raise and support ; 
That to the height of this great argument 
I may assert eternal Providence, 
And justify the ways of God to men." 

It may be thought presumptuous in a person making so little pretension to 
learning or religion, to quote the language of the world-renowned poet, if not 
applicable to my present condition perhaps I may be excused, admiring as T 
do the sublimity of the sentiment, I would hope to draw some consolation or 
encouragement in my present prospect. Having witnessed much suffering 
from this awful delusion or raging mania, as well as from other departures 
from the Christian religion, I was willing to throw in my mite, in defence 
of Christianity, and if my humble endeavors should be instrumental in rescu- 
ing one solitary soul from the vortex of evil, I shall have no cause to regret 
that I have taken up my pen. Having passed the meridian of life, my glass 
will soon be run, my frail bark (like all others,) is gliding swiftly down the 
stream of time ; the sands of life begin to ebb, it would seem to be in accord- 
ance with reason that if there was anything that I could do for suffering hu- 
manity, or in other words, for the promotion of universal righteousness on 
earth, I have no time to lose, and I know of no better way than to follow 
after that which makes for peace. This seems to be a remarkable era in. 
which we live, spiritual Jerusalem is beseiged on every side. 

The seeds of Skepticism are (as it were) sown broad cast over the earth, 
and mankind are reaping the fruits thereof, seeking to be as G-ods knowing 
good and evil, and partaking of that forbidden fruit which " brings death into 
the world and all our woe," not even regarding that flaming sword, which 
turns every way to keep the way of the tree of life, which is as fully realized 
in the present day as when our first Parents were driven out of Paradise. 
Secret things belong unto the Lord but those that are revealed to us and to 
our children, is also equally applicable to the present generation; 

" Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view 
Nor the deep tra^t of hell, say first what cause 

Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state, 
Favored of heaven so highly, to fall off 

From their Creator, and transgress his will 
For one restraint, Lords of the world besides I" 

Although I acknowledge to the inventive powers of the genius of Milton and" 
that some of his sentiments partake of the sublime, I am far from believing 
that his Paradise Lost and Paradise regained are any benefit to mankind ; 
Attempting to penetrate into scenes behind the vail, presuming to elucidate 
the cause which led to the fall of man from that innocent state in which he 
was created ; however brilliant his intellectual powers in the creating of im- 
ages of the imagination or successful in weaving in his argument all the 
varied flowers of rhetoric that could adorn the eloquence of man. His book 



' 20 

according to my judgment is nothing more than Fable, his imagination 
soared into unknown regions, he attempted to do what no other man had ever 
done, to write a Poem or Novel, where the scene was laid beyond the confines 
of this world, what shall I say, in the regions of air, of earth, or of hell, for I 
dare not say of heaven. Although it may appear that I have wandered from 
my subject, yet not altogether so, as I wish to show that modern spiritualism 
partakes more or less of the same delusion, that of traveling beyond the con- 
fines of earth, and pretend to reveal the mysteries of the spirit Land as 
they call it; and are publishing their books and Periodicals, filled with the 
tidings of departed friends, and the experience of the great men of all 
generations ; from infidel or christian ; saint or sinner. If any reliance could 
be placed on them, a new era has indeed dawned upon mankind. 

The floodgates of heaven are thrown open to the initiated, and the bottom- 
less pit is ransacked for intellectual food for poor mortal man ; for that 
man who refuses to be led and guidedby the light that was given as a light 
to enlighten the gentiles, and for God's salvation to the ends of the earth. 

Poor dark benighted man. According to the new theory, the sources of 
information being illimitable, what is there to hinder the fulfilment of scrip- 
ture prophecy that the world could not contain the Books that should be 
written. If I have any idea or comprehension of the mysteries of iniquity or 
of the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth, this new tangled 
witchcraft, or in more refined language, modern spiritualism bears a striking 
resemblance. 

This new theory strikes at the root of Christianity, saps the foundation of 
the christian religion, and partakes without any invitation of the forbidden fruit, 
and forfeits the Paradisical state. Adam's fall was not greater that occasion- 
ed him the loss of Paradise ; It is simply this, the disobeying the divine com- 
mand, the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, or in other words as- 
suming to know good and evil for thyself independent of God, taking the reins 
of government into thy own hands, this it is that constitutes the fall of every 
Son of Adam. That soul that separates itself from God and the divine har- 
mony, is at once launched into an ocean of uncertainty, seeking to climb up to 
heaven in some easier way than by the cross, hence modern spiritualism comes 
in as one of the endless variations, from the center to the circumference, from 
that plain path of rectitude, in which the " way-faring man " could walk and 
not err, and falls as far below the heavenly state, as Adam did when driven 
out of Paradise. The probabilities are that science will approximate nearer 
to the line in odylics which divides between the effective agency of embodied 
and disembodied spirits. 

At present the phenomena blend in a penumbra, and form a land of shad- 
ows and of debate. It is only at a distance from the line that effects on either 
side can be with certainty referred to causes. That science will in clearing 
up the dimness, ever expel spiritual agency from all physical share in 
human intercourse, is in the last degree improbable. The progress of odylic 
research and experiment is increasing the probability of an opposite result. 
Conditions of spiritual interference are being multiplied. And all things be- 
token that we are entering on the first steps of a career of demoniac mani- 
festations, the issues whereof man cannot conjecture. 

Notwithstanding we have ample testimony of the dealings of the Almighty 
with his creature man in all the ages that have preceded us down to Adam, 
through sacred or profane history, we have in addition to that our own exper- 
ience and observation, with all the evidence by which we are surrounded, the 
rational understanding is enabled to arrive at a judgment in relation to every 
subject of a spiritual nature, more especially if we have kept a single eye to 
the guidance of that light which enlightens every man coming into the world. 



21 

Nevertheless with all this array of evidence hefore us, we find in the middle 
of the nineteenth century, men endowed with brilliant talents, filling high and 
responsible stations in the church and in the state, have taken up their pens 
not only in defence but really to advocate this new theory of modern spiritu- 
alism, and the consequence must inevitably be confusion worse confounded. 

As it is abundantly evident that a greater delusion has seldom if ever taken 
stronger hold of the weak and credulous, who lend a listening ear to the 
plausible statements and relations of spiritual intercourse with other worlds, 
to be seen in their Books and Periodicals ; The veracity of some of these we 
dare not call in question — yet I dare believe they are in the same delusion, 
or else I am driven into a greater dilemma, that of designing men, employing 
their superior talents and acquirements, to deceive the simple for mercenary 
purposes, or to acquire notoriety. Beecher says, " They blend in a penumbra, 
and form a land of shadows and of debate " In my humble opinion they will 
continue to do so through all coming time. 

The Almighty will never surrender his government into the hands of man. 
Therefore it is impossible that man can ever be the author of his own salva- 
tion. In my humble opinion we want no greater evidence of the divine dis- 
pleasure, than the numerous cases of insanity to which must be added a vast 
amount of suffering as the natural consequence. 

There seems to be an important enquiry which naturally arises out of the. 
present existing state of things, and that is whether the generality of mankind 
believe in an overruling or superintending Providence 1 or the omnipresence 
of Deity ? whether it is believed that he takes any cognizance of the present 
condition of the human race 1 either as it regards their bodies or their souls 1 
Whether he concerns himself to know whether they are good or evil ? Wheth- 
er it is believed he has any power to penetrate the dark recesses of the human 
soul to see what lodges there ? I shall take the affirmative that he rules in 
the affairs of nations and of men. That were his Power withdrawn all would 
drop into annihilation. In declaring his almighty Power perhaps no language 
is more appropriate than this, I am God and there is none else and beside me 
there is no Saviour. For the further confirmation of the views I have ad- 
vanced, I should prefer to quote the authority of Jesus Christ, to either 
Jamblichus or Cicero, that the living have no power or privilege of calling 
up the dead, or to hold any intercourse with them independent of the miracu- 
lous Power of God. 

Luke xvi, 27 to 31 "Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house : for I have five brethren, that he may 
testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham 
saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 
And he said, Nay, father Abraham : but if one went unto them from the dead, 
they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets : neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." 

Now in the very face of all the evidence needed by a rational intelligent 
being, how dare any man presume to say that he can converse with a de- 
parted spirit 1 What more appropriate epithet than blasphemy 1 Why not 
believe this argument 2 founded on the sayings of Jesus Christ, and con- 
firmed by the experience of the righteous of all ages, that what is to be known 
of God is manifest in man, and that God has shown or will show it unto him. 
It being in accordance with reason, and its foundation is revelation, which 
I believe to be the only mode of communication between God and all orders 
of intelligent beings from the lowest inhabitant of earth to the highest angel 
in heaven. Allowing this to be the universal faith ; or discarding the united 
belief of the good of every age, shall we wait fur the wisdom of man, in his 
unredeemed state, to unlock the secrets of the Almighty which have re- 
mained concealed in the councils of infinite wisdom, since the world began. 



22 

Pages 57 and 58 of the Review : " Accepting eclectic optimism, the truth 
mixed with all philosophic and religious systems especially the christian, it 
claims to supply atheists and infidels with the lacking evidence of immortality. 
Whoever ignorant of the puhlicalions of the movement, imagines that these 
claims are not. forcibly wielded with ingenuity, candor, popular adaptation 
and success, is egregiously mistaken. The movement is rapidly advancing 
and becoming one of the signs of the times." 

Now it appears to me that the author of the Review being selected by his 
congregation to examine the subject, must favor the views of the spiritualists 
or else I shall understand him as acting as counsel for them. The quotations 
from Scripture the author of the Review has cited as beating upon the sub- 
ject, I shall examine and interpret according to my understanding. Being 
under the firm impression that there is not a passage of Scripture from the 
beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelations, that favor in the least degree 
the argument of the new reformers, and that no movement w,as ever started 
by the cunning and serpentine wisdom of man, in relation to spiritual inter- 
course, that has partaken more of the divine displeasure than the present, and 
why 1 because they have attempted to unlock "the tremendous secrets of the 
dead " — why tremendous secrets ! because they have never been penetrated by 
poor frail finite man and they never will be. The worship of idols was in- 
troduced in the early ages of the human race, and was peculiarly offensive in 
the divine sight : but the witches, women with familiar spirits, soothsayers, 
necromancers, fortune tellers, believers in haunted houses, rapping and spirit- 
ual manifestations, caps the climax of all absurdity. Although we admit 
that such characters have existed in different ages of the world, that is no 
proof that they were ever sanctioned by divine authority or approved of by 
the virtuous and the good ; but in every age the most awful judgments of 
divine wrath has overtaken them. No matter how absurd the doctrine ad- 
vanced, the Scriptures are ransacked for its support and authority, and it is in 
this way they are wrested t<> their own destruction. Deuteronomy xviii. 9-14 : 
" When thpu art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, 
thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There 
shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter 
to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or 
an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or 
a wizard, or a necromancer For all that do these things are an abomination 
unto the Lord ; and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God will 
drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy 
God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, harkened unto observers 
of times, and unto diviners ; but as for thee, the Lord thy God has not suffered 
thee so to do." From these quotations it is plain that the iniquity of this 
nation was full, and they were to be driven out. 

Acts ii 16-18: "But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet 
Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of 
my spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; 
and on my servants, and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of 
my spirit, and they shall prophesy/' This prophesy of Joel is being fulfilled 
in the present day in all those who surrender themselves to the guidance of 
the spirit of God revealed in the secret of every soul. But what, let me 
ask, has this to do with the new theory 1 These passages of Scripture being 
cited by the author of the Review as being in favor of the new theory, or, as 
the spiritualists would sanction as going to establish an independent com- 
munion with the spirits of the departed, in whatever state or condition the soul 
may be in, as it appears according to their theory that there is. on sphere they 



23 

cannot penetrate, and reveal to the living their real condition in the spirit 
world. It would seem according to their doctrine that neither heaven nor 
hell was sealed against them. They assume the omnipresence of deity, are 
conversant with spirits in all conditions and situations in earth, in heaven, or 
in hell — enjoying these privileges as they profess to— what favors need they 
ask of the Almighty. 

Mark xvi. 17: "And these signs, shall follow them than believe; in my 
name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues." And 
here it is abundantly plain that Christ is encouraging his disciples, and as- 
suring them that if they were faithful, they would be enabled by the same 
power to cast out devils, and to speak with new tongues, and what are these 
devils ? I answer nothing more nor less than partaking of the forbidden 
fruit, until the propensities of our common nature get the mastery over us, 
and exactly in proportion as they gain the ascendency they become devils to 
us. It appears that Mary Magdalene had seven cast out at one time, and it 
appears in the sequel, that she was the first to witness the resurrection, so that 
this passage of Scripture has nothing to do with the new movement. Speak- 
ing with new tongues means being divinely inspired to open the mysteries of 
the kingdom. 

First Corinthians, xii, 8th to 10th, "For to one is given by the Spirit the 
word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to 
another faith by the same Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing by the same 
Spirit ; to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy ; to another 
discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the inter- 
pretation of tongues : " 

Here it is plain these are the gifts of the spirit of the Lord Almighty to the 
different individuals whose faithfulness had entitled them to these high honors, 
wherewith he had gifted them, and given them an insight into the states and 
conditions of their brethren, and be enabled to administer to their necessities, 
to their spiritual wants, without the least reference or allusion to departed 
spirits. First Corinthians, xiv. 32, "And the spirits of the prophets are sub- 
ject to the prophets." 

This alludes to the order of the church, that they may not interfere with 
each other, but that each might speak in turn, as they were moved by the 
power of God, so that the spirit of the prophets would be subject to the proph- 
ets, while clothed with mortality. First Epistle of John, iv. 1 ; " Beloved, 
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God ; because 
many false prophets are gone out into the world." Here I understand a caution 
given not to believe every spirit that presumed to prophecy, or to preach the 
Gospel, without bringing it to the test of our own experie ce in the spiritual 
life, the only criterion given us to judge, all in the present tense. First 
Timothy, iv. 1, 2 ; " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and 
doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron." 

Here it is evident that Paul alludes to those that had been faithful, who 
had run well for a time, and had partaken of the heavenly manna, but not 
keeping on the watch, had given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines devils, 
evidently the doctrines of wicked men. who had falJen from grace and the favor 
of God. and were drawing others after them as misery loves company, and the 
wicked want their associates. 

Thes. ii. 9 ; " Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with 
all power and signs, and lying wonders." By reading the three verses fol- 
lowing the one I have quoted, it is explained to my satisfaction, that the 
conjuror, necromancer or whatever name may be most appropriate for the pur- 



24 

pose of deception, Paul here alludes to one perfect in his art, all powerful 
to deceive and would if it were possible deceive even the very elect (but that 
is not possible) the combined powers of darkness personified in a human 
being, which we call Satan, God overruling the wickedness of man, sends 
them strong delusion, that persisting in this abominable wickedness, they 
perish in their own corruption. 

Eevelation, xvi. 13-14 ; " And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come 
out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth' of the beast, and out of 
the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working 
miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, 
to gather to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." 1 shall not 
presume upon a full understanding of these two verses, yet I will venture an 
opinion, that they allude to the deception of the magicians, in producing a 
new creation, apparently for the purpose of blinding the eyes of their deluded 
followers, and substituting the reasoning powers, as supreme ruler and gov- 
ernor in all human affairs, temporal and spiritual, and may with propriety be 
called devils working miracles, using every strategem the fertility of their 
imaginations could invent to deceive the people, and induce them to con- 
tribute to their unrighteous gains, leading entirely off from the teachings of 
the divine spirit, and gaining the ascendency in the minds of the people, even 
of the most influential, compared to the kings of the earth, are preparing 
themselves for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. The com- 
bined energies and powers of the natural understanding arrayed against the 
revealed will of heaven, and the-battleis on the plains of Armageddon, the 
dividing line between earth and heaven, or the final decision of the conten- 
ding powers of God and man for supremacy in the soul. Between the con- 
tending propensities of an earthly mind whose affections are absorbed or wrapt 
up in the things that appertain to this present state of being, and those 
powers and dispositions of the soul through the influence of the divine spirit 
striving for the ascendency. Michael and his angels fought and the devil 
and his angels, descriptive of the heavenly dispositions contending with the 
depraved dispositions of our common nature When victory is declared in 
favor of IViichael and his angels, a place for the devil and his angels is found 
•no more in heaven, and the sweet anthem of praise arises in the soul, saying 
glory to God, peace on earth and good will to men. 

John probably alludes in his prophetic vision to the conflicting powers of 
church and state, and to the various trials and afflictions of the true church, 
under the apostate condition of the outward professors of Christianity (desti- 
tute of that holy unction of divine life, experienced by the primitive believers,) 
in the darkness which had overtaken and overshadowed the professed follow- 
ers of Christ. 

First Samuel xxviii 5-8; "And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, 
he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of 
the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor 
by. prophets. 

Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek unto me a woman that hath a familiar 
spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to 
him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. And 
Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men 
with him, and they came to the woman by night ; and he said, I pray thee, 
divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall 
name unto thee." Here it is evident that Saul had departed from the Lord, 
or had displeased him, by going contrary to known duty, assuming to act 
independent of God, entertaining a spirit of jealousy, in pursuing after David, 
who had said in his heart 1 shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. Saul 



25 

inquires of the Lord in various ways and receives no answer, and the reason 
was obvious. 

Now I would ask whether it is rational to suppose the Almighty would 
invest a witch with power to raise the dead, when all previous history shows 
conclusively his abhorrence of all witchcraft, necromancy, divining and all the 
combined powers of deception, practiced in that day. If Samuel was raised 
at all, be was raised by the power of God, as he has declared abundantly he 
will not give his glory to another ; if Saul had inquired of the Lord in the 
integrity of his heart, while he was acting in and under his guidance and 
favor, I could readily believe that if to raise the dead was the better way to 
inform Saul, or warn him of the terrible calamities that were soon to over- 
take him, if he repented not, I should readily believe it would be done. I 
can also believe that the Almighty rules even amongst the disobedient, and 
overrule* the designs of the wicked, when the cup of their iniquity is full, to 
their own destruction, making man instrumental in inflicting or fulfilling his 
judgment on his fellow-man. But that he ever permitted a wicked person or 
a witch to raise the dead I dare not believe, neither do 1 believe the mediums 
of the present day have any capacity or power to enter the spirit world, and 
reveal to us the "tremendous secrets of the dead." Nevertheless I am 
aware that the veracity of some of these mediums cannot be questioned (at 
least on any other subject) yet on this there is not a shadow of doubt in my 
mind, they are deceived, and I believe the day will come, when this new 
theory will explode, and its advocates whose reason is retained, will seek to 
hide themselves from the reproach that is sure to follow ; my prayer is that 
the day may be hastened. 

First Kings, xxii, 20-23.-r-" And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab, 
that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead 1 And one said on this manner, 
and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood 
before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him And the Lord said unto him, 
Wherewith 1 And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the 
mouth of all his prophets. And he said. Thou shalt persuade him, and pre- 
vail also \ go forth and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a 
lying spirit in the mouth of all the^e thy prophets, and the Lord has spoken 
evil concerning thee." 

It appears Ahab had coveted Naboth's vineyard, and his wife had assisted 
him to get possession of it by fraud and violence. "And the word of Lord 
came to Elijiah the Tishbite, saying, Arise go down to meet Ahab, King of 
Israel, which is in Samaria: beuold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, which 
he has gone down to possess it ; And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, thus 
saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and taken possession 1 And thou shalt speak 
unto him - , saying, thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the 
blood of Nabotb, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." 

We see in the sequel that it proved true as predicted by Elijah the Tish- 
bite, the Prophet of the Lord, and that the Prophets which Ahab consulted 
were false Prophets, although the scripture says, "the Lord put a lying 
spirit in the mouths of all these thy Prophets." Is it not more rational to be- 
lieve that these false Prophets were possessed with a lying spirit, the legiti- 
mate offspring of their own corruptions, and permitted them to deceive 
Ahab, or even made use of them for purposes of his own, although not in 
acceptance with him, but far removed from the divine harmony ; upon the 
same principle that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart that he would not 
let the people go. That Pharaoh in the first place hardened his own heart, 
and he had become so depraved and hardened in sin the Lord chose to make 
an example of him, to show forth the majesty of His power. Pharaoh re- 
fusing to acknowledge His power, asked, who is the Lord that I should 



26 

obey him 1 First Thessalonians.iv, 13-17. — "But I would not have you to be 
ignorant brethren .concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even 
as others that have no hope ; For if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
atrain, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive . 
and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first : Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord." The interpretation or meaning of these few verses, 
seems to be differently understood by professing christians ; many believe 
they allude to a day of judgment, in the fathomless abyss of the unseen fu- 
ture, when the dead of all generations are to be summoned to tfieir final 
judgment, and the end of the world is at hand I have no such belief, but 
that God is always in his seat, and the book of life, or the record of the trans- 
actions of every human being is continually open to his view, and judgment 
is passed or condemnation rests on every act of disobedience and on every act 
of obedience to manifested duty the approbation of God and an approving con- 
science, that when mortality shall be dissolved and these bodies return to the 
dust from which they were taken, the soul will immediately enter into that 
state which its works in the body while on earth entitle it. I will now give my 
opinion of Paul's meaning of the other few verses quoted above : In that 
day which may truly be said to have tried men's souls even to a hair's breadth, 
and Paul feeling the weight of responsibility resting on his shoulders as father 
to the few who had renounced the world to follow Christ, being as he says 
born out of due time, yet nevertheless the chief of the apostles, and he is en- 
deavoring to encourage and strengthen them, pouring in the wine of conso- 
lation to his deeply afflicted and persecuted brethren in Christ, and not to 
grieve or sorrow immoderately for the dead, for those dear disciples who had 
gone from works to rewards, that as they continued faithful, that those of 
their brethren, the poor persecuted flock and followers of Christ, in that day 
of trial and awful suffering had gone before them, or were asleep in Jesus, 
God would bring with him, as much as to say, God would take care of them, 
and we that are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not 
pervent them which are asleep from entering into the joys of their Lord ; 
please observe unto the coming of the Lord, to the end of their sojourn here on 
earth. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first. Here I understand that Paul alludes to those of his brethren 
in persecution who had recently been co-laborers and fellow travelers in 
publishing the glad tidings of the gospel of peace, and who were asleep in 
Christ, they shall rise first, then we that are alive and remain shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; that whether 
we wake or sleep we should live together with him. 

I do believe that the Almighty may have permitted some of his faithful 
devoted servants to witness the safe arrival of the spirit of a dear departed 
friend on the celestial shore. 

Second Peter iii, 1-13. — " This second epistle, beloved I now write unto 
you ; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance ; that 
ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy proh- 
ets, and of the commandment of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour ; 
knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walk- 
ing after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming ? 
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the 



27 

beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the 
water and in the water : whereby the world that then was, being overflowed 
with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the 
same word kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one 
thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some 
men count slackness ; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repentance But the day of the 
Lord will come as thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the 
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing then 
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to 
be in all holy conversation and godliness ; looking for and hasting unto the 
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire .shall be dis« 
solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, 
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." Now I can readily apply these remarks of Peter 
to the spiritual condition of the soul while cased in this tenement of clay, 
that the false heavens which the natural man is building continually as a 
secure place for the deposit of all his treasures, his whole soul being com- 
pletely absorbed with the things of earth, what but the power of the Al- 
mighty, can shake these false heavens 1 He alone is able to destroy them by 
the fire of his wrath, in the day of his judgments. This unquenchable fire 
shall burn as an oven, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the 
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved ; the earth also, and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up. The earthly heart of man, his works and all 
that the controversy of the Lord is against shall be consumed, — " Neverthe- 
less we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness, old things have passed away and all things 
become new," to the ransomed and redeemed soul. Having examined most 
of the passages of scripture cited by the author of the Review, I must leave 
the reader to form his own conclusion, or judge for himself how far they go 
to prove this new theory of spiritual manifestations, or any new agency called 
odylic, that opens a communication with the spirits of the departed, independ- 
ent of the power of God. 

Those who believe in a judgment day at the end of the world or after the 
dissolution of this Globe, seem to place it, in my humble opinion in great 
uncertainty, as we have no more reason that I am aware of in believing in a 
speedy dissolution of this globe than Adam had; for aught we know it may 
continue forever. I recently heard an eminent divine declare before a very large 
audience that this ball of earth would continue to roll on, and generation 
would succeed generation through all the countless ages of eternity. I have 
no reason to question it. Why trouble ourselves about the beginning or the 
end of the world ? it is perhaps enough for us to know that when we come in- 
to the world it is the beginning of the world to us and when we go out it is 
the end of the world to us. Nevertheless I believe the Bible that it was 
created about six thousand years ago, and here I am willing to leave it, as 
not being essential for us to know, or it would be made manifest. 

Beecher's review of spiritual manifestations, Page 55 " If a theory be adopt- 
ed every where else but in the Bible, excluding spiritual intervention by 
odylic channels in toto, and accounting for every thing physically, then will 
the covers of the Bible prove but paste board barriers. Such a theory will 
sweep its way through the Bible and its authority, its plenary inspiration will 



28 

be annihilated; on the other hand, if the theory of spiritual intervention through 
odylic channels be accepted in the Bible, it cannot be shut up there, but must 
sweep its way through the wide domain of " popular superstitions," as they 
are called separating the element of truth, on which those superstitions are 
based, and asserting its own authoritative supremacy. 

Are we to be driven to a new theory of inspiration or accept only of a 
physical one? neither do I choose to accept of any odylic agency as I think 
it would be difficult to find many (except the disaffected) that will acknowl- 
edge to the discovery of any new agency, or mode of communication between 
God and his rational creation. Has it been left to the science of man to intro- 
duce us into an acquaintance with God and at the same time deny his agency in 
the spiritual manifestations of the present day, here seems to be a contradiction, 
to acknowledge the odylic agency in the Bible, and yet deny that God takes 
any cognizance of the spiritual intercourse with the souls of the departed 
according to the new theory — or that the mediums apply to him to reveal "the 
tremendous secrets of the dead," 

I believe that holy men were inspired to write the scriptures without any 
knowledge of any odylic agency whatever — but that it was revealed by the 
spirit of God upon each of their spirits, and continues to be revealed to every 
generation, acknowledging no new mode of spiritual intercourse, either in the 
Bible or out of it, but shall continue to believe that " the word is quick and 
powerful, sharp and sharper, than any two edged sword dividing asunder be- 
tween soul and spirit.joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
intents of the heart." 

The word of God is not shut up in paste board barriers, or confined to pa- 
per and ink, but threads its way through the regions of unlimated space, 
encircling the bounds of created intelligence, and to this omniscient power, 
the spiritual wants of every soul is known. The Bible, although acknowledged 
to be the best of Books, I do not consider or believe to be the only rule of 
faith and practice ; it contains the revealed will of God to various individuals 
who recorded it at the time, or while they were on earth, for the encourage- 
ment of their brethren, in the day in which they lived, and was no doubt in 
the ordering of Providence transmitted even down to the present day for our 
instruction andencouragement, as an outward auxiliary, in the great work of 
the soul's salvation, but the scriptures declare that " there is a spirit in man 
and the jnspiriation of the Almighty giveth it an understanding," this is in 
the present tense and was no doubt intended to apply not only to those in the 
day it was written but to all succeeding generations, as the Almighty is not 
partial, — where is the individual let me respectfully enquire that dare presume 
to say that revelation has ceased or that God has discontinued immediate 
communication with a world of intelligent beings. What is a revelation to 
one is not to another, except it be renewed by the same power. I am not a- 
fraid to assert that it is irrational to suppose the Almighty would rest the 
salvation of the millions of the human race that have inhabited this globe 
since the scriptures were written, and also unborn generations throughout all 
the countless ages of eternity on the shoulders of a few individuals recorded 
in the Bible. I hope to be excused from making a little digression from the 
main subject. To all whose curiosity is in the least degree excited, who are 
desirous of searching into the new theory in order to satisfy themselves, and 
more especially the young and inexperienced, I wish to caution you that it is 
not safe to tamper with a subject so dangerous to the peace and happiness of 
all, who by degrees begin to entertain a faint or partial belief, that there may 
be some truth in it. They begin to inquire of the initiated and are finally 
introduced to the circles, and if followed up they often lose the balancing power 
in the soul, and reason takes her flight. I feel it to be my solemn duty to 



29 

warn you to shun the circles as you would a pestilence, or the pestiferous 
wind of the desert, inhaling this poisonous influence into the soul, it saps the 
vital functions of the divine life, and death and darkness naturally ensue. 

Beecher's review page 73 "Mighty as tbe deep yearning of mankind, in all 
ages to penetrate the tremendous secrets of the dead ; mighty as the con- 
ception of departed worth, the unutterable longing of bereaved hearts for the 
unforgotten, and the ecstatic delights of souls suddenly restored to converse 
with the idolised whose loss made life a desert; they ^eave the spell of 
exciting novelty ; they excite the vague presentiment of boundless discovery, 
and unveil a dazzling horizon of an elysium without a cross, where mankind 
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Drunk with this elixir, the millions 
surrender to the implicit sway of — What Powers 1 Powers unseen, Powers 
aerial, under the masterly guidance of some one mind of fathomless ability 
and fathomless guile." 

From the description here given of millions surrendering themselves to the 
implicit away of an unseen, unlimited power of deception, what other infer- 
ence can we draw, than that our author is disposed to consider the spiritual- 
ists under the influence of an omnipotent power of evil, being intoxicated 
with an elixir that is calculated to darken and bewilder the natural under- 
standing, yet in his concluding remarks he admits that under the influence of 
an omnipotent power of goodtiess, it may finally prove beneficial to man. 1 
have no belief in any separate evil agency of such mighty powers, or any 
power, distinct from an unlawful gratification of the natural propensities 
and passions of our common nature until they become depraved, being pro- 
ductive of positive evil. 

In what manner two omnipotent antagonistic powers of good and evil will 
be able to compromise, or reconcile this matter, so as to be productive of 
good to the human family I leave for others to determine. 

As the whole fraternity of modern spiritualists (if I understand them) ack- 
nowledge no allegiance to the immediate operative power of God in the soul 
as the alone guide and director in the way of salvation, but have assumed 
the right and the power of consulting the spirits of the departed, or disem- 
bodied spirits, as the better and easier way to the kingdom of heaven, have 
thus declared war against Christendom, setting at naught every idea of any 
immediate superin tendance of the Divinity over the human family, they des- 
pise the principles of religion, as of no more importance than the baseless 
fabric of a vision. 

Since writing the preceding pages, I have perused a pamphlet written by 
S B. Brittan, entitled a review of the Eev. Charles Beecher's report ; having 
concluded my remarks on modern spiritualism, I do not resume my pen for 
the purpose of a review of Brittan's pamphlet, but simply to make a few 
remarks as a postscript to mine, in reference to a conflicting opinion on one 
important point in the controversy, in relation to the nature, character, and 
power of the agency of departed spirits. The presumption is, that the 
mediums of the present day, admit of no mediator between their spirits and 
the disembodied spirits with whom they presume to hold converse, possessed 
of fathomless ability and fathomless guile, or even of fathomless goodness 
and holiness, but that without any agency, power or assistance whatever, 
derived from anything created or uncreated, existing intermediately between 
embodied spirits or the souls of men here on earth, and all the innumerable 
host that is almost universally believed to exist in another state of being, 
either in a state of happiness or misery, or in whatever state their existence 
is, being acknowledged, the mediums of the present day, claim to hold inter- 
course, independent of all the powers that be. If Beecher confines his odylic 
agency to exist between evil spirits only, as his concluding remarks may 



30 

warrant the assumption, then Brittan's assertion that the position and tenure 
of Beecher's remarks, in the preceding part of bis report, seems to clash, or 
perhaps could not be fully borne out by the premises laid down, if I com- 
prehend his meaning. 

The plan of operations as claimed to be laid down by the spiritualists 
generally, would reject the idea of being confined to a demoniac correspond- 
ence, while those who claimed a good moral character (to say the least) had 
no privilege. 

Now in the conclusion I wish to say a few words as it regards my own 
opinion of the matter. I claim to have some knowledge of the faith of these 
modern reformers, in their first rise in Rochester, and that they presume to 
hold converse with the spirits of the departed both good and evil, I presume 
will not be denied. 

My opinion of the new theory differs widely from both Beecher and Brittan, 
that notwithstanding the array of talent of the highest order, and the influence 
of men of high standing in the community, who are not only believers in, but 
able advocates of this strange infatuation, 

I take the ground that it is all a delusion, if not of the devil, of man's own 
teeming brain ; I shall contend in the very face of all modern professed 
spiritual intercourse, with disembodied spirits, either good or evil, that no 
such power has been delegated to a rational intelligent being, by the great 
Supreme, and that poor, frail, feeble, finite man, dare presume to say, he can 
hold converse with disembodied spirits, either good or evil, is downright 
blasphemy, and an insult to the Majesty of Heaven. 

A few words in relation to the disbelief of spiritualists in the miracles 
recorded in the scriptures, and I have done ; they attribute them to natural 
causes, and assume to believe that this new-fangled witchcraft, clairvoyance 
and spiritualism compounded, or standing side by side in juxta position, is 
equal in all respects, to the wonders performed by Moses or by Jesus Christ, 
perhaps more especially in the healing art; if these pretensions do not par- 
take of blasphemy, then I apprehend a new dictionary is needed in order to a 
proper understanding of the English language, and an explicit interpretation 
of the views advanced by these pretended workers of modern miracles, and 
let me respectfully inquire where that man may be found, that dare to meet 
his naked heart alone, and in the presence of God, dare to proclaim to the world 
such monstrous absurdities, and in the very face of heaven, declare that God 
designs not to interfere with the established order of creation, and takes no 
cognisance of the thoughts and actions of men, leaving them to be governed 
by natural and fixed laws, adapted to that which is material, or is operated 
upon by the five senses, producing the rational faculties which they would 
have us believe is a sufficient guide, both as it relates to our temporal or 
spiritual concerns. Leaving them to work out their own salvation in a new 
(but not) a living way, by their own powers, presuming to seek intelligence 
and consolation in the regions of an imaginary abiding place, of the genera- 
tions that have preceded us, denying and putting at defiance the very God 
that made them, and continues them in existence, as having no immediate 
supervision over the bodies or the souls of men. 

The pretensions of the spiritualists are in my humble opinion tenfold more 
dangerous to the well-being of the human family (as far as its influence ex- 
tends,) and detrimental or even destructive to that religion of which God 
alone is the author and founder, and if we are to judge from the evidence 
afforded, even the infidel doctrines advanced by Hume, Voltaire or Thomas 
Paine, sink into insignificance, as it regards the insult offered to Deity, and 
the horrible effects produced by the deprivation of the reasoning powers, 
consequent upon these awful delusions. The views of the spiritualists are 



31 

not only infidel in their nature and character, rejecting the only means of sal- 
vation which God has» provided, assuming the powers of Deity itself, they 
become as Gods, knowing good and evil, acting' independently of all the 
powers that be, both in heaven and on earth, they ask no favor of Jehovah or 
of finite man. They presume to have access to the ethereal regions of unlim- 
ited space, to comprehend infinity, and to converse at leisure, or as best 
suits their convenience, with the spirits of all generations, who have witnessed 
a probationary state of trial here on earth, and profess to take counsel or 
seek to be directed, both in the concerns of this world and that which is to 
come, through the instrumentality of this innumerable host, in direct contra- 
diction to the saying of Christ, that they have Moses and the Prophets, let 
them hear them, and allow me to add that we have a teacher in the secret 
of the soul, that if we refuse to listen to its admonitions, we should as certain- 
ly continue to disbelieve, disregard and disobey the divine injunction if one 
rose from the dead, in order to impress the mind with stronger evidence, we 
are met with the emphatic reply " my grace is sufficient for thee." 

BRIEF REMARKS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Man being of a three-fold nature, body, spirit and soul, a compound of 
different elements, the body extracted from the earth, and prepared as a 
habitation for the soul during its probationary state, while in time, and being 
endued with a natural spirit, the same as other animals, partaking of the 
various dispositions and propensities of all animated nature combined ; to 
which are added, by this combination, or gift of God, the powers of reason, 
which distinguish man from all other animals, and elevate him above the brute. 

The natural man being completely formed before the immaterial part of 
the soul is attached ; the precise time when, as well as the knowledge of the 
intricate machinery that weaves together the invisible threads that unite soul 
and body, will probably remain a secret, reserved in the counsels of infinite 
wisdom, as unnecessary to be comprehended by the finite understanding of 
man. In the contemplation of the human structure, by our finite comprehen- 
sion, we have now arrived at the completion of a perfect being, pure from the 
hands of his maker, in a state of perfect innocency. 

The propensities of his animal nature, as well as the propensities and 
temptations of the spiritual faculties, or perceptions of the soul ; as the light 
or spirit of God shining in and upon the rational understanding, revealing his 
will, man's accountability to his Creator is made manifest, and herein is con- 
stituted his probationary state. He commences his career on earth, being 
surrounded by temptations, various in their nature and degree, as he comes 
in contact with his fellow-traveler, on his pilgrimage through the wilderness 
of this world, having brought no knowledge into the world with him, that 
which relates to his being here in time, is acquired by observation and expe- 
rience, the reasoning powers being exercised in providing sustenance for the 
body and the conveniences of life. 

The body being subject to the general laws of God, which operate upon 
that which is material (as the fire will burn us, and the cold freeze us) laws 
wisely adapted to the purposes of God ; which some hold to be all that is 
necessary for man to know, and all the protection, we realize by the provi- 
dence of God over the human family ; nevertheless, I hope and believe this 
number is limited, and that the prevailing belief is that the continual super- 
intendence or providence of God is over all his works, overruling the actions 
of the wicked to fulfill his purposes, and still maintaining a perfect equilib- 
rium or guarantee of the free agency of man : governing the whole human 
family with the same minute attention and regard, as if only one individual 
claimed his providential care. 



32 



THE PROBATIONARY STATE. 

Although man is created in innocence, a state of probation and trial 
awaits him in his pathway to the kingdom of heaven ; being designed for hap- 
piness, it becomes necessary that he should be proved, that he should learn 
obedience by the things which he suffers. That after being proved and tried, 
under all the various temptations incident to man's existence on earth, as 
the only medium, under the guidance of the spirit of God, by which he is 
redeemed having experienced all that was necessary to qualify him to enter 
into that rest prepared for the righteous, being saved with an everlasting 
salvation, he rises out of the innocent state in which he was created, into a 
glorified and happy state even while in time, having a foretaste of the joys of 
heaven, while clothed with mortality. 



IMMEDIATE INSPIRATION; 

OR, A KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL COMMUNICATED TO EVERY RATIONAL 
SOUL, WITHOUT AN AUXILIARY. 

A very general belief prevails the world over, at least where the Bible is 
read, that the Scriptures were written by inspiration — that holy men wrote 
as they were moved by the holy ghost or spirit of God — which is my firm 
belief. I also believe that the same spirit, and power that dictated the Scrip- 
tures, has in every age revealed to man his duty, shining into the soul a light, 
enlightening every man coming into the world, showing us clearly what we 
ought to do, and what we ought to leave undone, (in the language of the In- 
dian,) showing us what the mind of the Great Spirit is ; even when young in 
years, the heavenly monitor shows us clearly what is right and what is wrong, 
and as we give heed to its instructions, the light shines with greater clear- 
ness, brighter and brighter until the perfect day — until our final redemption. 
In some of those seasons of the peculiar visitations of the heavenly Father's 
love, we hear the still small voice, speaking intelligibly to the inward ear of 
the soul, confirming our faith, or giving us such counsel and admonition as 
we stand in need of. This inward teacher called by various names — the 
light within, the grace of God, the Spirit of God, " Christ within the hope of 
glory," all meaning one and the same thing, all powerful to effect the salva- 
tion of the soul, if obeyed, either with the assistance of instrumental means, 
or without it, as infinite wisdom sees meet to visit us. 

It is abundantly evident that God has seen meet to visit man by instru- 
mental means in every age. In the nature of our constitution we are social 
beings, and God is pleased to increase our happiness and usefulness in ad- 
ministering to the necessities of our fellow beings, both bodily and spiritually, 
his visitations being adapted to every condition of the human family. 

His instruments are those in every nation, kindred, tongue and people, who 
have tasted of the word of life, and the powers of the world to come, who 
have experienced religion to be a perfect reality. Whatever may be their 
attainments in scholastic learning, it is not essential to the gospel state ; sci- 
ence harmonizes with the gospel, in the mind of every man, when it is kept 
in its proper sphere, never attempting to pry into the secrets that belong unto 
God, or to presume to advance the Redeemer's kingdom by works of our own, 
however high in profession, built upon the experience of other men, or ex- 
tracted from the Scriptures of truth, without a perfect understanding of their 
true meaning; or any authority from the head of the church, to promulgate 
the sublime truths of the gospel. 

As the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, the natural man how- 



33 

ever gifted with talents of the highest order, to which may be added all the 
acquirements in the sciences, or in the study of scholastic theology, can never 
aspire to the knowledge of God, or to a right understanding of those things of 
a spiritual nature, appertaining to the salvation of the soul, any more than the 
animals below us can aspire to the knowledge of man. 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 

A belief in the immortality of the soul is nearly universal, the proportion of 
materialists, or of those who favor annihilation, being so small in comparison 
to the whole community, I shall take no further notice of them ; never- 
theless the faith of others who profess a belief in an eternity of duration, seem 
to manifest by their fruits, or their worldly pursuit*, that there is some doubt 
of their immortality at the bottom. The language of the poet may be appro- 
priate : 

" "What folly can be ranker ? like our shadows, 

Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines, 

No wish should loiter then this side the grave, 

Our hearts should leave the world before the knell 

Calls for our carcasses to mend the soil. 

Enough to live in tempest, die in port, 

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat 

Defects of judgment and the will subdue ; 

Walk thoughtful on that silent solemn shore, 

Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon, 

And put good works on board and wait the wind 

That shortly blows us into worlds unknown." 

The immortality of the soul seems to be indelibly inscribed in legible char- 
acters, by the finger of God, on, or rather into the very essence of our being, 
interwoven with the immaterial part, so that it forms our common nature as 
to the spirituality of our existence. 

From the earliest ages to the present time, in every part of the habitable 
globe, whether civilized or savage, we trace a belief in the immortality of the 
soul. We feel it in our accountability to the Great Supreme. Without it 
our hopes would perish on the threshold of our being ; religion would become 
an empty name, and mankind on a level with the brute. 

Not that I believe religion to be founded of the hope of reward, but that 
happiness is the natural result of a religious life and vice versa, misery the 
natural result of a wicked one. The doctrine of rewards and punishments, 
has a harsh unpleasant sound, or impressions on my inward ear, a phraseology 
not appropriate or properly adapted to a conveyance of the true meaning, or 
proper explanation of the relation of man to his maker. Being so wonderfully 
constituted, that he is the maker (under the guidance of the divine spirit) of 
his own happiness, or refusing to follow the divine monitor, his own misery. 



A BRIEF EXPLANATION 

OF THE VIEWS I HOLD IN RELATION TO THE CHARACTER AND MISSION OF 

JESUS CHRIST. 

I approach this difficult and perplexing subject with great diffidence, per- 
haps more so from a deficiency of deep religious experience, which is so es- 
sential to a proper understanding of any religious subject, and more especial- 
ly, one that has claimed the attention and investigation of thousands for up- 
wards of eighteen hundred years, men of the greatest research in scholastio 
5 



34 

learning and theological acquirements ; as well as those who place a greater 
emphasis on the immediate teaching of the Spirit of God, or a belief in imme- 
diate divine revelation, to open or expound the true meaning of the Scriptures. 
I repeat, what hope can I have to write any thing on this subject that will 
be read, making but little pretension to either learning or religion. Never- 
theless I do not consider it so sacred as to forbid an expression of opinion, 
having inalienable rights with my fellow probationers through this vale of 
tears. 

Now it appears that in due time Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea, or perhaps more appropriate to say, Jesus was born, his advent having 
been foretold by the prophets, an important epoch in the history of the church, 
when God had commissioned a special messenger, or minister, to his chosen 
people, the Jews, in order to prepare their minds for the introduction of the 
Gospel' dispensation, to finish the Law and abolish it. 

As to the miraculous conception I shall not dwell upon it. I acknowledge 
the almighty power in the work of creation, without any desire to penetrate 
beyond the limits designed for the comprehension of a finite being. 

The body of Jesus was composed of flesh and blood and born of a woman, 
the same as all other men, was subject alike to all the propensities of our 
common nature, to temptations and trials, perhaps greater than has fallen to 
the lot of a mortal being, in consequence of the important mission he had to 
accomplish, that of abolishing the law of Moses, after fulfilling it in all its 
parts, and introducing the gospel, or turning the minds of the people from the 
outward law, written on tables of stone, to the inward divine law, written on 
the fleshly tables of the heart, to the comforter, the spirit of truth, which he 
would pray the Father to send in his name, which was to teach them all 
things, and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said 
unto him. 

I have no belief in the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, or any co-eternal exis- 
tence with the Father, (it being incomprehensible to my understanding) or that 
he left the abodes of the blessed, taking upon himself a body of flesh for the 
redemption of man. The scriptures declare him to have been of the off- 
spring and lineage of Abram and David, and God would raise up from 
amongst their brethren a prophet whom they should hear in all things. The 
account of the miraculous conception may also be said to be expressly de- 
clared, so that each man must be left to his own opinion. In his divinity I 
fully believe that he never committed any sin ; that from the time he arrived to 
the years of understanding, what the will of God was, he was obedient, and 
continued faithful to its teachings, and was'led into that which is within the veil, 
into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, into a perfect union and com- 
munion with the Father, where there was no reserve, what is mine is thine, 
I and my father are one, the son of God in full, a partaker of the privile- 
ges of son-ship, as far as it could be experienced by an intelligent being 
while confined to this tenement of clay. Having learned obedience by the 
things which he suffered, and being in perfect subjection to the will of the 
Father at all times, of course there could be no reserve, being filled without meas- 
ure of the goodness of God, therefore divine ; and consequently clothed with 
all power, or at least all that was necessary for the fulfilment of the import- 
ant mission he was sent to accomplish. The states and conditions of the 
people amongst whom his lot was cast, was open to his view, and he admin- 
istered to their necessities both of body and soul, condescending to the va- 
rious conditions of suffering humanity; he healed the sick, cleansed the leper, 
opened the eyes of the blind, and even raised the dead to life ; all this power 
he continually acknowledged he received from his Father, and without it he 
could do nothing, — " I can do nothing of myself," — " The Father who is in 



35 

me he doeth the works." In his prayer he says, " I know that thou hearest 
me always, but it is for the people I speak." Nevertheless he declares he has 
all power, yet it must have been a delegated power, foreseen by infinite wis- 
dom that it would not be abused ; perhaps it might be said that it could not, 
after a complete initiation into the kingdom of heaven, where could be the 
danger? Allowing theft he had power to call to his assistance twelve le- 
gions of angels, he undoubtedly knew that if he exercised this power in his 
feown defence, even to the destruction of the whole Jewish nation, he would 
f \$o it with a perfect understanding of its being in direct opposition to the will 
f I f Jehovah, and consequently inimical to his own happiness. Therefore, we 
have no more authority for believing in two Gods than the Trinitarians have 
for believing in three. That one Almighty power created all things, and 
sustains and governs all, is so abundantly evident, both from scripture and 
reason. " I am God and there is none else, and beside me there is.no Sa- 
viour." Jesus Christ was the mediator between God and his chosen people, 
the children of Israel, directing their attention to a more inward and spiritual 
worship and communion with the Father than they had been taught by Mo- 
ses under the law — that great leader, under the express command of Jehovah, 
authorized to conduct his chosen people through the wilderness and over the 
lied sea towards the promised land, which law was now to be fulfilled and an- 
nulled by a mediator expressly commissioned for the purpose of opening or re- 
newing the communication with the Father. Jesus Christ the mediator hav- 
ing flushed his work, delivers into the Father's hands, or in other words sur- 
renders all up to the Father and he becomes all in all, and continues all in all to 
the present day without any medium to reveal his will to his rational children ; 
but immediate divine revelation is the rock on which the church was and is 
to be built, and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. God has 
come down to teach his people himself, and the light of his countenance or 
spirit shining directly into the soul, showing us with indubitable clearness 
what his will is concerning us, desiring that all should come to the know- 
ledge of the truth and be saved, all that will come may come to God, we are 
left without excuse, obey and thy soul shall live. 1 hope I shall not be mis- 
understood as conveying the idea that God has dispensed with instrumental 
means in the redemption of man from sin ; I have no such view or belief, 
but that in all probability instrumental means will continue to be made use 
of in stirring up the pure mind by way of remembrance, and directing the 
inquirer after truth to that power which is able to save, which is all the 
power that is delegated to a finite being. 



GENERAL, OR MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS 

ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY, AND THE CHURCH ; MORE PARTICULARLY AS IT 
RELATES TO THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

This society after having passed through great afflictions and trials in its 
first rise and progress, stemming the torrent of persecution, until its final es- 
tablishment as a religious body, whose rights and privileges were, after much 
suffering, generally acknowledged and respected, and the society continued 
to flourish for nearly two hundred years, and it is with much regret that I 
have to acknowledge a declension from the purity of its principles and tes- 
timonies, so long and conspicuously borne and promulgated before the world, 
by those faithful sons of the morning of the reformation. Approaching the 
standard of Christianity (at least by profession) of the primitive believers, 
and whose principles and doctrines are as sound and pure as in the first days 
of their espousals, (if faithfully maintained) the declension arising from a 
want of purity of life in individuals, and not from any defect in the original 



36 

doctrines and principles themselves. And my faith is that they will ulti- 
mately triumph over all others, as proceeding from the spirit of God, the 
foundation of the Christian religion, immediate divine revelation. The rock 
on which the church was to be built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it, under whatever name it may be called. I am not so tenacious of 
the name of Friend or Quaker so long as the purity of the principles are 
maintained. God is not partial, religion does not consist in bare profession 
and a name. When the vitality of religion departed from his chosen people, 
the Jews, what was the consequence 1 the most awful judgments the world 
ever witnessed, and have we any better claims on the mercy or forbearance 
of God ? 

Religion in its genuine purity is but little understood throughout Christen- 
dom, if we are to judge of men by their fruits. We are taking up a rest in a 
profession and round of ceremonies without coming down to the life of re- 
ligion, to the grace of God in the heart, to the well-spring of life, away down 
in the depths of the soul, where the knowledge of God can alone be obtained, 
as whatever is to be known of God is manifest in man, for God has shown or 
will show it unto him in the immediate revelation of his will, without any 
necessity to wait for the outward teaching of books or men, although these 
instrumentalities are all good in their places, to stir up the pure mind by way 
of remembrance. No outward dependence for a rule of life can be relied 
on, not even the Bible, or the purest gospel ministry ever uttered by a hu- 
man being, independent of the revealed will of God, conveyed immediately 
to each and every rational soul, for the purpose of his salvation, in common 
with Christ and his apostles and of the very same kind (if not in degree) as 
no other kind would be genuine. There is no other power that teaches us 
with certainty what is right and what is wrong. That in every act of wick- 
edness, we are reproved, we feel guilty, man would not convict himself of 
what he chose to do ; therefore nothing short of the immediate power of the 
Almighty is sufficient for a rule of faith and practice. God has reserved 
this right and power to himself, as it would not be safe in the hands of man. 
Allow me to quote a few words from Elias Hicks : — " Every creature under 
heaven, of every nation, has a witness in themselves. There they know 
what the mind of the Great Spirit is, there they know the mind of Jehovah, 
by whatever name he may be called. They can all come home to the witness 
for God in their own souls ; there they feel all their condemnation." 

I am at a loss to conceive how a belief that immediate revelation had 
ceased and that it was confined to a few holy men of old, should have pre- 
vailed so extensively without any sufficient evidence (in my humble opinion.) 
I am more willing to believe that outward miracles have ceased, and that the 
communication or intercourse between God and the soul of man is inward and 
spiritual, that every degree or portion of light emanating from the divinity, 
and shining upon our understanding opening to us our duty is revelation, 
what else could it be 1 and as we close in with, or obey every opening of 
manifested duty, it will continue to shine brighter and brighter until the per- 
fect day, until our final redemption, and God shall become all in all : This I 
consider to be Immanuel God with us, this divine principle I hold to be 
universal as described by the language of the Poet 

" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent; 
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; 
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, 
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns. 



37 

As my remarks are miscellaneous I shall now allude to the state of the 
church as I understand it to exist more particularly in the society of friends. 
The declension in the society is to be attributed to various causes, the main 
or most conspicuous one is worldly prosperity ; the influence of wealth, and a 
desire to accumulate property seems to have engrossed the attention, and af- 
fections of a large porfion of society, and its influence is interwoven with the 
most important concerns and vital interests of the church. Nevertheless the 
mere possession of wealth is not reprehensible, is not pernicious if justly 
and honestly obtained, and used as a gift from the all-wise dispenser, in ac- 
cordance with the dictates of a pure conscience — is sometimes a blessing to 
the individual possessor and to those permitted to share with him its consola- 
tions. Wealth gives power and here the danger lies, man is so prone to as- 
pire after some kind of prominence over his fellow man, that but few escape 
the contagion, the influence becomes general, and men are almost universally 
measured by it, more or less in all ranks of society, in ay situations, in social 
or religious communion ; it is by this door that much weakness has found its 
way into the most important concerns of religious society, sapping the very 
foundation of that gospel order, which has been maintained with much con- 
sistency for a century and a half. 

I fear that unless there is a rallying to the standard of those religious prin- 
ciples and doctrines which have been so long the distinguishing badge of 
discipleship, this language will be applicable, the abomination of desolation 
stands in the holy place. 

The glory is departing from our Israel, and the dark night of apostacy 
seems approaching, if it has not already overtaken us. Shall it be said that 
after the lapse of a couple of centuries, this once highly favored society is 
not only divided, but continues to exist only in form 1 I hope better things 
though I thus speak : Nevertheless I have to acknowledge that the wisdom 
of man in some instances assumes the judgment-seat or prerogative of God, 
in relation to the most sacred oflice in the gift or approbation of the society 

A spurious ministry is the natural consequence and the forward spirits that 
would palm themselves off for Gospel Ministers are encouraged and here 
comes in conflicting opinions that rend and divide. The balance of power or 
ultimate judgment in some meetings, resting so much in the wisdom which is 
from beneath, influenced by popular opinion, that the true church, or spirit of 
true discernment is over-ruled, and a wilderness state is the consequence. 

In the weak state of society some are placed in important stations, they are 
not qualified to fill, and the spirit of discernment seems to have very much 
departed from the councils Of those who sit in judgment, on the most impor- 
tant concerns that ever engaged the attention of intelligent beings, viz. to de- 
cide what is gospel and what is not. 

It is devoutly to be wished that society will so far retrieve its former 
dignity as that its ultimate judgment may be in accordance with the will of 
the supreme. 

That we are not without hope the Lord will spare his people and give not 
his heritage to reproach, that the heathen rule over them, that the influence of 
the people by whom we are surrounded, or at least the example of those 
whose works do not entitle them to the^convenant of grace, should triumph 
over those principles and doctrines that have so long distinguished us from 
the nations of the earth. 

I do not profess to be a prophet or a prophet's son, yet I am not without 
hope the Lord will arise in his own time and shake terribly the earth, and our 
false rests will be broken up, the elements will melt with fervent heat, and all 
that is combustible burned in that unquenchable fire, that can never be ex- 
tinguished until all that is reprobate is consumed, and we come to experience- 
a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 



33 

The will and wisdom of man having been entirely surrendered, we are in- 
troduced into the '• new and living way, in which the liou's whelp has never 
trod, the vulture's eye hath not seen, which no fowl knoweth, and also des- 
cribed as that where the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers 
and streams in which there shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant 
ship pass thereby, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord 
is our king and he will save us." 

These passages of scripture are so beautifully descriptive of the state of 
that mind wherein the pride and loftiness of the natural man are circum- 
scribed by those heavenly tempers and dispositions which originate from the 
source of all goodness, having regained the paradisiacal state, the world and 
its concerns are in complete subserviency to the higher powers. The lives 
of the faithful few who are thus redeemed, shine as brilliant stars in the 
firmament of God's#power, and cast a radiance around them which illumes 
the paths of their fellow travelers zion ward. In the present state of society 
this number is limited, they seem like angels visits few and far between. 

Most of the great and distinguished Gospel Ministers that have flourished 
in the society for the last quarter, or perhaps half century, have been remov- 
ed from works to rewards, a Hicks, a Wetherald, a Comly and others, whose 
names I have no doubt are gloriously enrolled on the records of eternity. 

Where shall we look for a succession of standard bearers to carry forward 
the great work of reformation 1 our hopes must center on the rising genera- 
tion, we have no where else to look, the call has gone forth loud and deep, 
to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, against the tremendous 
temptations by which we are surrounded from without, in addition to those 
that arise from within, we are beseiged on every hand, not by soldiers of the 
cross, but the enemies of the true church, who take up a rest short of the true 
rest, upon the barren mountains of an empty profession of religion ; the world 
loves its own under whatever form of Godliness it may appear, " it hated me 
before it hated you," will be understood in the experience of every true 
christian. 

The cause which we profess to have espoused with the principles involved, 
is perhaps without a parallel in the records of antiquily. A cause dignified 
with immortality, and must eventually be crowned with eternal life, in all 
who continue faithful to the end. 

The testimonies which devolve on this society to bear to the world are im- 
portant and stand out in bold lelief before the view of mankind, as somewhat 
peculiar in their character and bearing. 

The society having gained a reputation for honesty and upright dealing, 
has in the vortex of popular delusion, in pursuit of wealth, being allured 
by the temptations afforded by the credit system, have in many instances 
extended our business beyond the limits prescribed in the conscience of a 
pure and upright man. jeopardizing the property of others, oftentimes to a. 
vast amount, compromising those principles of integrity, which shone so 
conspicuously in the lives and conduct of our worthy predecessors, those dis- 
tinguished examples of simplicity and moderation, whose characters are 
exhibited, and shine with peculiar brilliancy on the pages of history. 

Notwithstanding the many weaknesses which I have portrayed that exist 
in the present day, I hope I shall not be understood as disbelieving that, we 
may possibly have still among us seven thousand who have not bowed the 
knee or kissed the image. Nevertheless it is evident that too many of us 
worship at the shrine of wealth, without inquiring by what means it was 
attained, or manifesting a right concern for the promotiou of justice and equity, 
the glory of this world, eclipsing the rays of the divine lumiaary, from 
shining with undiminished lustre, on the tender susceptibilities of the immortal 



39 

part, a lethargic state pervades this once highly favored society. Although 
the picture which I have drawn of the state of society, is rather gloomy, 
I apprehend it is essentially correct. 

When we turn to contemplate the state of professing Christendom generally, 
what do we discover?* but the same indifference, the same lukewarm formal 
profession, the pursuit of wealth the all engrossing subject, and the influence 
of riches when attained, usurping authority over all the finer feelings and 
sympathies, that are the offspring of a religion that is heaven horn. 

We are all worshipping in the outward court, are too superficial, we glide 
on the surfaee of an empty profession of religion, a round of lifeless forms and 
ceremonies are offered as the price of our redemption ; being exact in the 
performance of these duties while our consciences are at ease in zion, acting 
with promptness and decision in all the outward ceremonials, and we are 
roaster of two kingdoms, being dutiful to heaven, that we may get a better 
hold on earth. 

Ministers presume to preach the gospel who have never learned the first 
lesson, in the school of Christ, and take the name of God in vain, in the bold 
attempt to handle things divine, unauthorized by any higher power than the 
united sanction of man's wisdom, which always was foolishness with God. 

Like priest like people, a religion of man's invention without a cross. 

The world of mind moves on, apparently with but little or no concern for the 
eternal well-being of the immortal part, we neglect to bring our deeds to the 
light within to see whether they are approved in the divine sight. Never- 
theless there is a secret uneasiness in our more retired moments, that warns 
us of the danger of trifling with the goodness of God, his visitations being 
disregarded, he renews them again and again, in the cool of the day, when 
all the propensities of our nature, are hushed into stillness, and we hear a 
voice, as it were, from behind us saying this is the way walk thou in it. 

In all the various pursuits which engage the attention of man, a desire for 
happiness is inseparably connected, yet for the want of a proper understand- 
ing of our true interest, we experience a void, which all our energies can 
never fill, a proof that the soul is immortal. 

Man was created for a higher and more noble purpose, than the gratifica- 
tion of unnatural propensities, or for the aspiration of knowledge beyond the 
•limits designed a finite being; the partaking of this forbidden fruit, brought 
death into the world, and continues to bring death into the world, and a train 
of evils as the natural consequence. 

The almighty is sovereign of all created intelligence, he will not give his 
glory to another. Why should we continue to pursue after phantoms of the 
imagination ? Why all this Babel-building, in order to reach to heaven ; 
our conceptions of a tower that could escape a general deluge, will not be 
realized, but as surely frustrated as in the early ages of the human race, pur 
language is already sufficiently confounded to convince us, that every 
attempt to establish ourselves in a stage of happiness, by all the combined 
powers of the natural understanding, will end in disappointment. The expe- 
rience of six thousand years ought to be sufficient to teach us the fallacy of 
attempting to climb up or to seek an entrance into heaven, in any other way 
than by implicit obedience to manifested duty, which alone constitutes the 
heavenly state ; a loeal habitation and a name will avail us nothing, God 
looketh at the heart. 

A desire for happiness is implanted in the breast of every man, yet the 
good man only makes happiness subservient to the higher law; his duty to 
God is cheerfully performed, without the hope of reward, but solely for the 
good of his fellow man, happiness being the consequence, rather than the 
motive by which he is actuated, the result of obedience to manifested duty, 



40 

therefore not selfish ; purity of heart and life, influence all his actions, being 
filled with the love of God, he seeks the good of all, as he does his own, the 
knowledge of the Lord covers the earthly mind, as the waters cover the sea, 
and the glorious anthem is sung, peace on earth and good will to man, the 
great cause of universal righteousness reigns triumphant, and man fills his 
place designed in the order of creation. 



THE IMMEDIATE, ALL-SUSTAINING POWER, PROTECTION, SUPERINTENDENCE 

AND OVERRULING PROVIDENCE OF GOD, THROUGH ALL HIS WORKS, 

BOTH MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL. 

That the outward visible creation is immediately and continually sustained 
in its position and order by one eternal almighty power that spoke into exist- 
ence all that is inanimate, animate or spiritual. That he presides with a 
sleepless eye over all his works, is abundantly evident both from outward 
observation and inward experience of this operative power, the great first 
cause of all, upon the spiritual faculties, which constitute the essential por- 
tion of our being, and is the only mode of immediate communication with the 
Divine Intelligence. The operation of this spirit of the infinitely wise Jeho- 
vah, is universal throughout his rational creation. It is from this power we 
must confess the light emanates, shining into the soul, even in the dawn of 
the existence of all that is immortal, showing with distinctive clearness that 
can never be mistaken, a rule of faith and practice, immediate, internal and 
powerful, even to the saving of the soul from sin, leading us with safety 
through this probationary state of trial, to the end of our pilgrimage here on 
earth. 

The importance of a firm and unshaken belief in the immediate supervision 
of an infinity of all the attributes centred in one Almighty Power, that com- 
prehends in one eternal now, the situation of every intelligent accountable 
being, presiding in the innermost recesses of the soul of man continually, 
pointing the way in which he should walk, approving or reproving every se- 
cret thought, the will determines, even before it is carried into execution ; 
when we yield to the temptation, so far as the consummation of the act, then 
sin is finished and death ensues, a separation from the Divine harmony, we 
are cast out of paradise, having partaken of the forbidden fruit, with the per- 
mission even of the Great Supreme, as our free agency is kept inviolate by 
the infinite wisdom that planned and sustains the order of creation. 

The precision of the planetary system, the revolution of the globe we in- 
habit in such exact order of time for near six thousand years, at least, accord- 
ing to sacred history, producing what is called the rising and setting of the 
sun, inviting man to labor and to rest alternately. 

The almost universal belief of the human family in the works of creation, 
preclude the necessity of any argument to convince them of what they readily 
acknowledge, but my observation in relation to a belief in the immediate su- 
perintendence and government of the same creative power is not so fully ac- 
knowledged by the united intelligence of the human race. Some say the fixed 
and unalterable laws of God, (which are perhaps generally confined to that 
which is material,) operate upon the five senses, producing reason, which is 
all that is necessary to regulate and guide the whole man, either denying the 
existence of the spiritual faculties, or if admitted that reason is all that is 
necessary to guide us safely through this state of being. Reason being de- 
rived from the fixed laws, we have only to study or examine the nature of 
these laws, to regulate our lives, even our whole conduct, both as it relates to 
God and man, that if there is any soul they have never seen it, and it is con- 
tended that God having created and placed us here, with these powers of ob- 



41 

taining knowledge by observation and experience, he has no further oare over 
us than he has over the material universe, including all animated nature as 
being governed by these fixed laws, which have existed, some say, from all 
eternity, or at least, since there was anything in existence on which they could 
operate, according to their theory, as all our knowledge is derived through 
the five senses, and they perish at the dissolution of the body, consequently 
there is the end of us, a disbelief in the immortality of the soul is the natural 
consequence. They will probably say that when God spoke into existence 
the world that we inhabit, or the whole planetary system with all their ap- 
pendages, these fixed laws were instituted, or formed a part of creation, in the 
• regulation and arrangement of the plan of infinite wisdom. 

It is evident, reasoning from the analogy of things confined to earth or to 
matter, that their faith can reach no higher, this world engrosses all, hence 
no accountability, We are. the abiters of our own choice, and who has a right 
to call it in question, the world is all before us, where to choose our place of 
rest, and our reason is our guide, might makes right according to this mode 
of argument, and our happiness would depend on our physical powers ; the 
gratification of the propensities of animal nature would reign predominant 
and form our highest heaven, a probationary state of existence is set at nought. 
The enjoyment of the things of time sum up the whole matter. A man is 
not only at liberty to covet his neighbor's goods, but to take them by force 
and enjoy them, not being such an ignoramus as to convict himself of what 
his reason told him to do, there being no accountability higher than this, or 
for a further elucidation of the subject, allowing them the best government 
such a state of things would admit of, it would, in my humble opinion, be 
destitute of every principle contained in the higher law, in a law founded on 
justice. Thieft, fraud, forgery, and every kind of deception would prevail, 
where no principle of religion, or any accountability was acknowledged. 
Chaos, anarchy, and confusion must inevitably be the consequence. Only one 
step further and we reach the Atheist, and I would respectfully inquire how 
much further removed from Christianity is a disbeliever in the existence of a 
God, or one who acknowledges the existence of a Supreme Being, yet denies 
that he exercises any immediate supervision, or providential care over the 
temporal or spiritual condition of a world of intelligent beings ? I will not 
attempt to solve this question but leave it to the judgment of the reader. I do 
not feel it incumbent on me to endeavor to convince the Atheist, the probability 
is that instrumental means of a much higher order than my feeble pen will 
prove altogether inadequate. I consider the miraculous power is required, in a 
case so far removed from the divine harmony, he is in the hands of a merciful 
God awaiting his destiny, and will most assuredly reap the reward of his own 
doings, standing on a level with the whole human race as it regards his free 
agency. There are, however, other states and conditions of infidelity various 
in divergency from the centre of the christian faith, for whom I might have a 
rational ground of hope that I might pen a few lines that might possibly be 
worth a perusal, having witnessed the deleterious effects of this wide-spread- 
ing evil ; perhaps I may venture to say, that I am solicitous to discharge what 
appears to impress my mind as a sense of duty, at least paramount to all other 
considerations, which induce me to take up the pen, and my desire is that I 
may never write a line intended for the public eye, " that in dying I should 
wish to blot." Being well aware that talent of the highest order is engaged in 
writing in the present day, much that is calculated to amuse rather than in- 
struct, my desire is that what I write may have a tendency to direct the mind 
to a power on which we can alone depend through all the vicisitudes and 
trials incident to this state of being. We live in an era of strange events, the 
imaginations of the mind of man seem to be afloat in various airy speculations 



42 

that result from a want of faith in the overruling providence of God. The 
seeds of infidelity are sown broadcast over the earth, sapping the foundation 
of religion, by diverting the mind from a dependence on the immediate teach- 
ing of the spirit of God, to a dependence on the powers of the rational under- 
standing. Our predilections to an independent exercise of the will in the 
gratification of the natural propensities of the body, as well as the acquire- 
ments of knowledge beyond the bounds prescribed by infinite wisdom, date 
back to the first progenitors of the human race, and this free agency of the 
will of man has been exercised beyond due bounds productive of incalculable 
misery to a large portion of the human family through all preceding genera- 
tions down to the present day, ruling out all the finer feelings that have their* 
origin from those heavenly dispositions which are the fruits of obedience to 
manifested duty, and contain those redeeming qualities that proceed from the 
grace which was declared to be sufficient for the salvation of the soul. 

Allow me a small digression from the subject under consideration in or- 
der to explain the connection of the soul and body with their attendant lu- 
minaries, the lights of reason and of revelation, by quoting from an author 
whose intellectual powers and religious experience I consider far superior to 
my own ; I allude to John Jones' Essay on the System of Man, yet they are 
nothing more than the views of finite man, which are incompetent to a full 
understanding of the subject : — 

" Man, being composed of natural and spiritual parts ; or body, spirit and 
soul. The spirit of man being naturally situated between the material earth- 
ly body, and the immaterial spiritual soul, is by the powers of reason fitted 
to be the agent between them. The soul is an invisible spiritual sub- 
stance, that cannot be generated. It is the immediate production of the Al- 
mighty, created by him ; and being immortal, cannot cease to exist. It is 
therefore, the most noble part; and being situated spiritually between the 
natural animal spirit and the supernatual divine spirit, it has a capacity 
of being united to either of them." 

Having made a small digression from the subject more immediately under 
consideration, when I first took up my pen, as necessary, or at least calcu- 
lated to aid in the elucidation or confirmation of the views I have or may 
hereafter advance, I will pursue this digression a little further in order to 
bring into view for the purpose of a more full examination the better to 
comprehend the true position we occupy or stand in relation to our duties to 
the Great Supreme, and to consider the relation or influence of those antago- 
nistic powers with which we have to contend, (whether real or imaginary.) 

The mind of man seems prone to seek for heaven and happiness in out- 
ward and visible things, and to endeavor to climb up to heaven in some easier 
way than by the cross — we prefer to exercise the volition of the powers of 
the natural man, in all that relates to our destiny in time and eternity, and 
there are some even in this enlightened age that are still disposed to believe 
in some separate evil agent operating in the secret of the soul along side the 
supernatural spirit, and nearly equal in power, supposed to be a fallen angel 
from the abodes of the blessed, gifted with powers but little inferior to Al- 
mighty, especially those of omniprescence and omniscience, and sent or perhaps 
rather permitted to tempt and torment the human race, going about like a 
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 

My design in penning these lines will not permit a full description of this 
imaginary evil existing either within or without us ; that such a monstrous 
absurdity should have obtained so long and so extensively in the world is be- 
yond my comprehension, when sufficient light has been afforded and mankind 
have witnessed in the lines of their experience sufficient evidence (of the folly 
and delusion of such an ignis faluus, clothed with such mighty powers of decep- 



43 

tion as has been attributed to him) as to banish forever from tbe mind of 
every intelligent being, tbe remotest idea of any self-existing evil agent 
tempting him to disobey a ligbt above tbe brightness of the sun, shining im- 
mediately into the soul, enlightening every man coming into the world. 

A few words in relgftion to what constitutes a fallen angel. All that has 
been revealed to finite man, or that is comprehended while in this state of be- 
ing in relation to fallen angels, is in my humble opinion, confined to the va- 
rious conditions of the soul while cased in this tenement of clay, and is de- 
scriptive of that state, that after having measurably overcome the world and 
subjected the desires of the flesh, to that rule of life inscribed on the tablet 
of every heart, as with a pen of iron or the point of a diamond, having tasted 
of the word of life, known something of the joys of heaven, and the powers of 
the world to come, and then yielding to temptation falls back into the beg- 
garly elements, the gratification of the natural propensities ; or suffering the 
mind to be led away by the vain imaginations of our own hearts in depending 
upon his own reasoning powers as being sufficient to direct in things apper- 
taining to salvation, after having been acquainted and governed by the su- 
pernatural divine spirit ; then to fall away by partaking of the forbidden 
fruit, presuming to judge and to act independently of that Almighty power 
which created and sustains and governs all, except where the rebellious will 
of man exerting his free agency, disturbs the divine harmony, and for- 
feits the paradisical state. This is what I call a fallen angel, and every 
fallen angel is a devil ; and these rebellious spirits not repenting of their evil 
deeds, going about seeking whom they may devour, as misery loves company, 
they will endeavor to draw others after them ; and is also described as stars 
falling from heaven, from the enjoyment of the consolations afforded by obe- 
dience to that in-shining light or luminary, which if obeyed, shines brighter 
and brighter until the perfect day. The term devil is also descriptive of those 
depraved propensities of animal nature which by continual indulgence be- 
yond the bounds prescribed become our tormenters, and all the devil we have 
to contend with, or need have any fear of, is one of our own creation ; those 
passions and propensities of our common nature the constituent parts of our 
very being^if indulged beyond due bounds become devils and tormentors to 
us, is abundantly evident from scripture, from enlightened reason, and our 
own experience. 

The immediate cognizance of the same power that speaks into existence the 
whole human race, is observable throughout the habitable globe, that the whole 
family of mankind are equally divided into male and female, and that no two 
individuals are exactly alike or ever have been, they are not only different in 
physiognomy, but they differ constitutionally in body and mind, they do not 
think, alike or speak alike, even the voice of each individual differs from all 
the rest, and a person is distinguished by the voice, with (I was about to say) 
as much certainty as by sight; a proof that the power that continues the 
work of creation is infinite, that should this world continue to be inhabited 
with human beings through all the countless ages of eternity (and I have 
no reason to doubt that it will) there is no probability that two human be- 
ings will ever be in all respects alike, because if they were it is reasonable 
to suppose there would be an end of the race. 

I shall present my views to the consideration of the reader, that if worth 
a perusal, I desire them to pass for what they are worth and no more, my 
prayer is they may not be productive of harm, but if any advantage can be 
derived by the reader then I shall not have written in vain. My desire is 
to endeavor according to my limited knowledge and experience to call the 
attention of my fellow probationers to a more thorough examination or ac- 
quaintance with the immediate operations of the Divinity, as it appears to 



44 

me we are so prone to be seeking for happiness in the accumulation of tem- 
poral riches, and also in the acquisition in that kind of knowledge that is for- 
bidden, assuming to judge for ourselves in matters that appertain to salva- 
tion, to be as gods knowing good and evil, refusing to comply with the terms 
proposed, " obey and thy soul shall live," We go about to build a tower that 
shall reach to heaven, thinking to secure a retreat from the floods, and to build 
so high as to reach above all the powers that be in heaven or on earth. 

I will venture to predict that our language will be confounded and the 
sooner we leave off to build the tower, and quietly acknowledge the insigni- 
ficance of our finite capacities in all that relates to the redemption of the 
soul from sin, and its progressive advancement in righteousness ; God will not 
give his glory to another or his praise to graven images, or the work of man's 
device. It seems to be the prevailing opinion if we are to judge of men 
by their fruits, that the science of man is essential, if not absolutely neces- 
sary in the promulgation of thegospel ; if this be admitted, then it follows 
as a necessary consequence, that the salvation of the soul is dependent on 
the wisdom of man, so far as instrumental means is requisite in advancing 
the permanent interests of the race. These continual endeavors to satisfy 
the immortal part with food that is not convenient, ends in disappointment, 
leaving a vacuum that God alone can fill. When we behold the various de- 
viations from the plain path of rectitude, which are the fruits of infidelity, 
and proceed from a disbelief in and a dependence upon that immediate op- 
erative power in the secret of every soul. The minds of many in the pres- 
ent day, under various pretensions that they have discovereed a better and 
an easier way to a full fruition of all their hopes, the summit of all human 
desires, the attainment of happiness and heaven, by the exercise of the ra- 
tional powers, and are planning and forming systems that shall supersede all 
others, being built on the will and wisdom of man, a superstructure on which 
they appear to rest all that can satisfy either the material or spiritual part 
of our existence. Although I presume the foregoing descriptions would in- 
clude a large number under no particular system of organization, I shall 
only mention* a few that have come more immediately under my observation, 
perhaps the most prominent or those who have produced the greatest ex- 
citement are the modern spiritualists. I shall take no notice of them here, 
having given my views at some length in an examination of a report of 
Chas. Beecher, on the claims they put forward. 

The subject of Phrenology has been recently explained or taught perhaps 
with more ability than at any former period, and it has claimed the attention 
of men of superior talents, who have expressed an opinion in favor of a scien- 
tific examination and study of this new method of ascertaining the character 
and ruling propensities of individuals by the shape of the head, as being pro- 
ductive of important advantages in the education of youth, also in determin- 
ing the course of study adapted to each. 

Now I do not presume to doubt or disbelieve that an experienced phrenolo- 
gist can describe the ruling propensities of individuals at least in many 
instances with a tolerable degree of accuracy. But my object in treating 
briefly on this subject, is to endeavor to prove that the science if it may" be 
so called is of no real benefit to mankind, that the evil will in my humble 
opinion overbalance the good to be derived from a study that is altogether 
superficial in its nature and tendency, its whole profession and faith is found- 
ed on outward observation ascertaining by visible signs the natural disposi- 
tions that predominate in each individual. Now if this was all that the 
Phrenologist claimed to do, merely to ascertain by the bumps or protuberances 
of the head, what were the strongest or ruling passions of the inner man I 
should not object to this simple method of learning the leading temptations of 



45 

the mind, or so much as can be reached by the wisdom of man, in the knowl- 
edge of the character or standing that each individual bears to those by whom 
he is surrounded, and with whom he is associated in the concerns of life ; the 
good book says we are known by our fruits, but whatever positive knowledge 
is to be derived from *the shape of the head, (as to the propensities of the 
natural man, as the sphere of operations of the most skilful Phrenologist is 
confined to that which is natural, it can rise no higher,) it is nothing more nor 
less than a gift or one of those talents we have received from the creator as a 
constituent part of our being and we are at liberty to improve it and use it 
for our comfort and advantage while in time. If there is enough to be 
gained by the study of Phrenology to pay the cost, and it is kept within its 
proper sphere, man has a right to the acquisition of knowledge that is useful ; 
his free agency gives him the liberty to aspire after something more and if 
the Phrenologist by dividing the surface of the head into square inches, or by 
making a chart of the virtues and the vices, attempts to regulate his conduct 
by it, or by searching or feeling after the pertuberances that can point the 
way to the kingdom of heaven, or prove a sure guide in our duty to God, and 
that which relates to the salvation of the soul, I will venture to assert that 
he will find it altogethar insufficient, as no stream can rise higher than its 
fountain, all the science or combined wisdom of man, is entirely incompetent 
to take one step initiatory to the kingdom of heaven. 

That flaming sword continues to be turned every way to keep the way of 
the tree of life, 

I do not profess to have attained but an imperfect knowledge of Phreno- 
logy, a hasty perusal of some of their writings is sufficient to convince me 
that but little advantage is to be derived from a perfect knowledge of the 
science, and I fear the evil will probably result in a belief that the shape of 
the head is the rule of faith and practice, sufficient to guide both in temporals 
and spirituals. That whenever a head is found where combativeness pre- 
dominates or is unusually large, and the same in other protuberances that in- 
dicate strong propensities to evil, and veneration small, the weak and 
credulous have an argument put into their heads, that G-od having made them 
with such strong propensities to evil, how can they resist such powerful 
temptations ; the Phrenologist will probably say the parents have neglected 
to regulate the bumps, and the conclusion is irresistible that they are excusa- 
ble if they should commit crimes of great magnitude, as they did not create 
themselves and being made so much worse than others that if they commit 
murder, they ought to be excused, because they could not help it. And here 
the great danger lies in turning the minds of the people to some outward 
rule by which to regulate their conduct, superior to that inward light, which 
the highest authority has asserted to be the true light, that enlightens every 
man coming into the world. But it may be said this is only a more sure and 
infallible test in determining the character of each individual with whom we 
may come in contact. I promised that my remarks on this subject should be 
brief, I now ask the indulgence of making a few remarks by the way of com- 
parison of the different methods made use of to obtain the same result. Why 
not consult Lavater on physiognomy in preference to Fowler on phrenology 
in reference to the condition and state of the inner man ? I shall not hesitate 
to prefer the countenance as a more sure index to the soul, than the shape of 
the head, as the countenance is regulated by the condition and state of the 
soul, with as much certainty as the mercury in the thermometer determines the 
state of the weather, that if we have been with Jesus our countenances will 
betray us. 

Those who are desirous to learn what effect wickedness and crime has on 
the countenance, would do well to take a peep into our prisons, where they 



46 

may read in the countenances of some, that devils incarnate is a proper name 
for them, and on the other extreme, when we meet the virtuous and the good, 
we discover in the countenance, the evidence that the heavenly dispositions 
have the ascendancy in the soul, 

The kingdom of heaven cometh not by outward observation, therefore it 
behooves us to turn the eye of the mind inward and acquaint ourselves with 
the operation of a power that is able to save and to deliver us in the hour of 
temptation. 

The meaning of the word salvation, as understood by many (if their fruits 
are a criterion by which to judge their faith) has reference to the future con- 
dition of the soul, when the pursuit and the enjoyment of the things of time, 
have failed to saiisfy, and the wisdom of this world has reached its zenith, 
and the final conclusion is in unison with the wisest of men, vanity of vanities 
all is vanity. 

We read that faith without works is dead, and a dependence for salvation 
on the works of another, on something that has been done without us, that 
will finally save us in the end, but is not applicable to the present time, or is 
not adapted to our daily walks. 

A salvation that can be relied on must be immediately operative in saving 
people from their sins (not in them) this saving principle, or spark ethereal 
struck from that rock that followed Israel, and that rock was Christ ; and is 
the only power that can or ever did save a soul. 

Man the most noble of God's creatures here on earth must rationally be 
regarded as Lord of creation, unto whom as the supreme ruler of all below 
him, he has been gifted with powers and capacities to hold communion with 
the great Lord of all, to enable him to understand the nature, disposition and 
uses of all animals and to govern them in accordance with the designs of in- 
finite wisdom. The great question or problen yet to be solved with a large 
portion of mankind, relates to the proper mode or means of holding communion 
with this invisible power ; many say that revelation has ceased and we must 
go to the scriptures, which they style the word of God in order to ascertain 
his will, others depend upon the minister to interpret his will to them, but 
God has declared he will teach his people himself, and has placed within the 
heart or secret of the soul, a witness that can never be deceived, our thoughts 
are open before him, and the way that leads to heaven is so plain, that the 
most illiterate are left without excuse, as the wayfaring man though a fool as 
to the wisdom of this world shall not err therein, or may walk therein and 
not err, 

What greater evidence do we want, or have we any rational ground to 
expect to be furnished with, that the same almighty power that gave us exis- 
tence continues to be mindful of us, and the language, accompanied by a 
bright and shining light, is continually sounded in the ear of the soul, as a 
voice from behind us, saying, this is the way walk in it. It is not essential 
to examine the shape of the head, or to attempt by the finite wisdom of man, 
to unlock the gates of heaven, and consult the spirits of the wise men of all 
generations, in order to obtain an entrance into the kingdom, for it has been 
declared that we cannot by searching in our own wisdom find out God, secret 
things belong unto the Lord, but those that are revealed, to us and to our 
children. 

For a further confirmation and as corroborative testimony of the immediate 
superintending care of the universal Parent of the human race, the records of 
scripture furnish examples sufficient to convince any but the most incredulous. 

The miraculous display of divine power in the deliverance of his chosen 
people from Egyptian bondage, and his dealings with tbem on their journey to 
the promised land ; and the final abolition of those laws by which they had 



47 

been governed, when the time appointed was fully come for the ushering in of 
the gospel dispensation, the miracles performed through Jesus Christ bore 
ample evidence of a power that was almighty. 

A word to the wise is sufficient, I need only to cite a few instances of the 
exercise of a power, manifested undoubtedly for the purpose of establishing 
the faith of his children, whose views were outward ; and this power was 
continued to be exercised, whenever it was needed through many generations. 

The condescending goodness of a gracious God to poor, frail, finite man, 
in all conditions and under all circumstances, in every age, is sufficient for 
his salvation if believed in, and obeyed ; the conclusion of the whole matter 
is summed up in these words "my grace is sufficient for thee." It is difficult 
to account for the scepticism that prevails in the present day, when we re- 
flect upon the vast amount of testimony, that is presented, in addition to the 
internal operation of a supernatural divine spirit 

There are various degrees of scepticism, more especially as it relates to 
a belief in an overruling providence, which the reasoning powers of the natu- 
ral understanding, are not competent to analyze, is at once rejected as inad- 
missable testimony, more particularly where the Almighty uses the wicked 
and rebelious in the administration of his judgments upon others, as in the 
case of Pharaoh, and in other instances perhaps beyond the power of numbers, 
to bring into view, and in the present day we frequently hear it asserted that 
God is not the author of cruelty, and consequently he does not take any cog- 
nizance of those engaged in war, at least so far as to commission one man to 
slay another, or do him the least injury, under any circumstances whatsoever, 
and in the wars of the Jews, they do not believe the Almighty had any hand 
in it, that he never commanded Joshua, Gideon and a host of others, to slay 
their fellow men, 

Notwithstanding the assertions of men of talent and influence amongst 
professing christians, that God does not now or ever did interfere in the 
battles of the warrior, in their terrible conflicts, in which rivers of blood 
have been shed, as though he had surrendered up the government of a world 
of intelligent beings, and left theru to fight their own battles, and rule in the 
kingdoms of earth and of heaven, independent of any power superior to the in- 
tellectual capacities of a finite being. That any man that is conversant with 
the scriptures of truth, should presume to assert that God rules not in the 
kingdoms of men, might with as much propriety, assert that the sun in its 
meridian splendor, had ceased to shed its effulgent rays of light, and warming 
beams that animate, and continue in existence, all that has life, that belongs 
to earth ; of how much more importance are the concerns of an immortal mind 
clothed with a body of flesh, temporary residents on earth, dependent on the 
power that created us, for all that we enjoy, whether temporal or spiritual, 
what presumption to deny his overruling providence 1 that this insignificant 
creature, man, when using his free agency, asserts his independence of God, 
declaring that God has no control over him, (while acting contrary to the 
clear manifestations of duty within his own bosom) and if one man is independ- 
ent of God so are all the rest, hence no overruling providence ; this is the 
argument of a poor benighted mortal, groping in darkness at noon-day, 
as though the Almighty Creator of the ends of the earth has not power to 
dispose of every being, of his own creation, in whatever way it may please 
him. except forcing him into heaven against his will, which is not compatible 
with the divine government. 

To suppose that unlimited intelligence is not competent to rule amongst 
the wicked and the good without becoming the author of evil, must limit the 
powers of omnipotence, or reduce them to the comprehension of a finite being. 

Although the gospel state forbids all wars and fightings, but to return 



48 

good for evil, with a long catalogue of virtues which it enjoins, and who can 
for one moment doubt, that infinite wisdom is continually using all the means, 
compatible with the free agency of man, in order to introduce every ra jnal 
soul into the gospel state. 

Nevertheless we behold that a very large majority of the human family 
are not included in the gospel state, hence wars and fightings are likely to 
continue for many generations, far beyond the ken of human foresight. 

It is the more astonishing to me that a member of the society of Friends, 
whether Hicksite or Orthodox, should entertain such narrow and contracted 
views of the divine character, as appears to be the case with some, who it 
seems would limit his regard to a few within the pale of the christian faith, 
not merely by profession, but those who are really introduced into the gospel 
state, which may include the one hundredth part of the human race, who are 
real christians, claiming nothing from jew or gentile, their pedigree having 
descended from the prince of peace, and is heaven born, these are God's 
peculiar people in ever age. Yet shall our narrow contracted views limit the 
regard of Jehovah, to those only who are already redeemed from the fighting 
state, and not extend his protecting care and overruling power to the ninety- 
nine hundredths of the human family, many great and good men, classed under 
this head, have figured largely on the page of history, and were really the 
instruments in the divine hand, in moulding the destinies of nations, and 
equalizing the conditions of men, by important changes in government, 
ameliorating the conditions of thousands, by introducing more liberal aud 
enlightened views. 

I have no difficulty in believing that there are a great many good men, that 
are not christians, who are commissioned by the King of Kings, to carry 
forward the great work of reformation in the earth, as it seems necessary that 
people should be civil before they can be religious. 

Where arbitrary governments infringe upon the inalienable rights of men, 
and the people are oppressed by unjust and cruel laws, the all-searching eye 
of a power that is omnipresent as well as omnipotent, beholding the suffering 
of a people goaded to desperation, by intolerable oppression, and their deliv- 
erance is effected by instruments raised and qualified for the especial pur- 
pose ; one of the most illustrious of modern times was George Washington. 



EXTRACTED FROM EDW'd HICK'S MEMOIRS ON THE SUBJECT OF WAR, PAGE 223. 

The Doctor's letter contained some remarks on war, which revived im- 
pressions touching that subject, which is now so much talked of, and it may 
be right for me to try to express, or give some views that appear to be given 
me. 

" My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, 
then would my servants fight." This is the testimony of eternal truth, from 
which I argue that the subjects of the kingdom of this world will fight, and 
always have fought, and I must rationally infer, that the subjects of the king- 
dom of Jesus Christ never did fight, never can fight, nor never will fight. 

The mission of Jesus Christ to our world was to redeem man from the 
fighting state, and to restore him to the primeval harmony, where the fighting 
animal was governed by a rational soul, created in the image of God ; infinite 
in its nature, and everlasting in its duration ; and this rational soul was gov- 
erned by God himself, as his perfect child, possessing a portion of the same 
glorious attributes of infinite power, infinite justice, infinite wisdom and infinite 
mercy, which are embraced in their perfection, in the everlasting Father. All 
who are thus restored are regenerated, and born again, this is the new birth; 
old things being done away, all things are new, and all things of God. 



49 

These having grown to the stature of men in Christ, are christians, and the 
truth having set them free, they are free indeed. Such are the subjeots of 
Christ's kingdom, and servants that cannot fight with carnal weapons. All 
whb'iiave not witnessed this restoration, and change of heart, are in their 
fallen and consequently fighting state, because animal nature governs their 
souls ; therefore, thej* will fight by the same law that all male animals fight. 

Hence, the great family of mankind in their fallen state, are like minor 
children, and can no more be called christians with propriety, than boys can 
be called men. 

In this great family there is the same variety of capacity and understanding 
that would be found in twenty children descended from one common parent, 
with one year's difference in their ages, or fifty children of the same difference 
in age and capacity. 

A wise and good teacher would not only have lessons suitable for the va- 
rious classes, but rules and regulations adapted to their general ages ; and 
knowing that play was inseparable from the nature of a child, a judicious 
teacher would command the time and place, and enforce obedience to his 
commandments i thus establishing an important point, submission to supe- 
rior power. 

Hence, Paul compares the law of Moses to a schoolmaster, which was 
added because of transgression, and to remain in full force until Christ come, 
"who is the end of the law for righteousness to all them that believe." 

Now, it appears to me, that the infinitely wise and merciful heavenly Fa- 
ther, knowing that this creature man, in his fallen state, must fight, and would 
fight as naturally as the game cock, or any other animal creature, instituted 
laws to regulate his warlike spirit, and bring it into obedience to his com- 
mands, and into subservience to the great attribute of justice ; therefore, the 
most sacred and important history presents to us some of the elder and more 
perfect children of this great family, such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, 
&c, who were great warriors, but faithful, dignified servants of the Most 
High ; and as the law that embraces coercive government continues the 
same, and must continue while men are in a fallen, and consequently 
fighting state, the history of latter ages presented to us such warriors 
and benefactors, as Hampden, Washington, &c. Now it aDpears to me 
worthy of particular notice, that when the Saviour of the world came to 
save the souls of the children of men from sin, by delivering them from the 
bondage of their animal nature, and putting them in possession of the glorious 
liberty of the children of God — 1 say, it is worthy of particular notice, that 
this great minister of the sanctuary, and perfect pattern of everlasting righte- 
ousness, never spoke against such soldiers as Moses, Joshua, Gideon and 
David, much less abused them, or pointed out, when in the temple and syna- 
gogues, whither the Jews resorted, their bloody acts and butcheries, or called 
in question the truths of those Scriptures, which contained their acts and 
sayings ; but we are informed that he manifested great kindness, and spoke 
in the highest terms of praise to a Roman soldier, declaring his faith exceeded 
the faith of all the Israelites. This soldier was not only brave, but he was 
noble, generous, humane, and humble ; and of course, a kind, sympathizing 
master to such as were placed under his care ; and hence, that solicitude for 
the restoration of his sick servant, which induced him to apply to the Divine 
Saviour to cure his slave, as our modern Ablitionists would call him, for there 
is no doubt that this excellent soldier was a slaveholder. 

Neither have I auy recollection that Peter or Paul ever prostituted their 

tongues, or their pens, in abusing soldiers ; and in making them out murderers 

and butchers of the human family. But we are told that Peter had a most 

extraordinary meeting with a Roman soldier, who was not only noble and 

6 



50 

generous, but devout — at which time he was converted to Christianity : and 
Paul was saved from falling a sacrifice to religious fanatics, headed by 
wicked priests, by the generous bravery of a Roman general. These con- 
sistent and exemplary Christian ministers, so far from abusing the govern- 
ment and the instruments that were made use of for its support, recom- 
mended and practiced daily prayers for them, declaring that "the powers 
that be are ordained of God, and whoso resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- 
nance of God, and such as thus resist, bring upon themselves damnation." 
Such appears to have been the spirit and practice of the primitive saints. 

And in reading the history of early Friends, I do not remember that they 
manifested the persecuting, malignant, bitter spirit, which appears in some 
who go under the name of Friends in our clay towards soldiers, for many of 
the first Quakers had been soldiers, or were the children of soldiers. The 
father of the illustrious Penn was a great soldier, and bore a noble testimony 
to the blessed truth, as professed by Friends, on his death-bed. 

The two greatest preachers amongst them had been soldiers and officers 
in the Parliamentary army ; and the preaching of one of them made such an 
impression on a soldier, who, I could wish to be believed, was the excellent 
Colonel John Hampden, that he afterwards so effectually preached to two 
young men in a tavern, that they both became great preachers. The story, 
as I read it, nearly forty years ago, is in substance as follows : 

Two gay young men of the world, in England, were one First-day drinking 
in a tavern, and the subject of their diversion was the peculiarities of the 
Quakers. They had noticed a very serious, dignified officer of rank in the same 
room, a silent, and no doubt sorrowful, witness of their ignorance and folly, 
who thus addressed them : " Young men, you appear to be making your- 
selves merry at the expense of a people whom you sire entirely ignorant of; 
and as I once indulged the same contemptuous opinions, with your permission 
I will tell you how my prejudices were superseded by love and respect for 
these most consistent Christians : After the battle of Dunbar, I was riding 
at the head of my regiment, and saw at a little distance from the highway a 
great collection of people ; and it being a time of revolution, I sent the ad- 
vanced guard to ascertain their design, and, if evil, disperse them. They ap- 
peared peaceably to stay, and I marched up with the rest of ihe army, when 
I saw a Quaker preacher speaking to the people with such power and divine 
authority, that I trembled more at the sight of myself, under the powerful 
ministry of J. N. than I did at the battle I had just witnessed, when the 
bullets flew around me like hail. I therefore advise you to go and do as I 
did — go and see and feel for yourselves, and if I am not mistaken, you will 
change your opinion of them." This sermon, so unexpected, and coming 
from a soldier, had a wonderful effect on those two young men, and induced 
them to go the next First-day, twenty miles to a Quaker meeting, where they 
were both convinced, and both became great ministers of the everlasting 
gospel of Jesus Christ- 

This story, if true, and I have no reason to doubt it, presents to our view a 
soldier in a very different light from what they are presented by modern refor- 
mers and upstart Quaker preachers ; for really I must sincerely confess, that I 
view myself, in comparison with such a soldier as Col. John Hampden, as a 
mere insignificant imbecile, and have reason to fear that all the preach- 
ing I have done in my life, has not added as much to the stature of truth as 
the preaching of that soldier, whose character and dying sayings are thus 
spoken of by an eminent English writer : — " It was when, to the sullen tyranny 
of Laud and Charles, had succeeded the fierce conflicts of sects and factions, 
ambitious of ascendency, and burning for revenge, it was when the vices and 
ignorance which the old tyranny had generated, threatened the new freedom 
with destruction, that England missed that sobriety, that self command, that 



51 

perfect soundness of judgment, that perfect rectitude of intention, to 
which the history of revolutions furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a parallel 
in Washington alone. ' In the first charge Hampden was struck in the 
shoulder by two bullets, which broke the bones and lodged in his body, — 
then, with his head draoping and his hands leaning on his horse's neck, he 
moved feebly out of the battle ' A short time before his death, the sacra- 
ment was administered to him, and when all was nearly over, he lay murmur- 
ing faint prayers for himself and for the cause in which he died. ' Lord 
Jesus,' he exclaimed in the moment of his last agony, ' receive my soul — 

Oh Lord, save my country — Oh Lord, be merciful to ,' in that 

broken ejaculation, passed away his noble and fearless spirit." 

With this view. I cannot help looking round with anger on such unbe- 
lievers in Jesus Christ, as the apostles speak of — presumptuous, despisers of 
governments, who are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, such soldiers 
and benfactors as Hampden and Washington ; but I hope I am grieved at 
the hardness of their hearts and the deficiency of their understanding, and I 
certainly ought to pass by in silence, or treat with silent contempt, the im- 
potent abuse of a silly New England girl, because the effervescence of the 
tongue of a termagant is not considered slander. But when a Quaker 
preacher breaks the commandment of the moral law that says, " Thou shalt 
not speak evil of the rulers of thy people," and the discipline of his own 
society, abusing the government under which he lives, and encouraging a 
faction, which has for its object the dissolution of the Union, and the con- 
sequent introduction of anarchy and confusion, 1 say that when such palpable 
inconsistency presents itself, it cannot be passed by with impunity ; I there- 
fore feel it my duty to bear my feeble testimony against such false breth- 
ren ; for I am grieved at my heart, when I consider that the infinitely wise 
and merciful Jehovah has provided through distinguished instruments the 
most blessed asylum that we Quakers ever had. 

A mild, generous and just government, which extends its wings of pro- 
tection over our civil and religious rights, that we preachers should mani- 
fest so much of the groveling selfishness of the inferior animals, who enjoy 
the fruit, but never look up with gratitude to the source from whence the en- 
joyment comes ; but, like them trample the precious pearl under foot, and 
turn and rend the hand which presented it. And the manner in which too 
many treat the Holy Scriptures, justifies the caution of the Divine Master, 
" Give not that which is holy unto dogs." I repeat it again, that I am asham- 
ed of my brethren and sisters that have been permitted to live in the golden 
age of the best government under heaven, — in the land of Penn, and the 
vicinity of the city of brotherly love, — the lap of indulgence and luxury, 
and some, with a mushroom popularity, that is dandling them about like doll- 
babies, standing within the walls of a peaceable Quaker meeting-house, prat- 
ing against the government that furnished the asylum ; and notwithstand- 
ing their ugly spirit, still protects their heads from merited insult. 

Poor, contemptable womanish weakness, which never felt the noble spirit 
of patriotism our Lord alludes to, when he says, " Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." Upstarts, whose 
narrow contracted, self-righteous souls were never capable of entering into 
sympathy with the poor soldiers of 1776; their hardships, privations and 
sufferings, whose footsteps were marked with their own blood, whose tedious 
nights and wearisome days, involving the most awful responsibility, were 
so marked in the lines and configuration of the face of the illustrious Wash- 
ington, that the goodly young Quaker who visited him on business in Sev- 
enty-six, received such impressions of sympathy and respect, that he ever 
spoke of him with feeling reverence ; and at the venerable age of more than 



52 

four score, I heard him repeat with peculiar energy and simplicity. But this 
consistent Quaker was entirely different from those I have alluded to 

Edward Hicks' Memors, page '357. — "Who was George Washington?" 
To make a parody of the language of a late historian, he was the son of a 
widow, horn beneath the paternal roof of a Westmoreland farmer, onthe banks 
of the Potomac. No academy ever welcomed him to its shade— no college 
ever granted him a diploma. To read, and to write and to cypher, was the 
extent of his school learning, which he so improved in the path of humble in- 
dustry, that he was found at the age of sixteen on the head waters of the 
Potomac, exposed to all hardships and dangers of a poineer surveyor. In a 
word, a series of offices and appointments, involving the greatest responsi- 
bility, from his youth up, which he filled with perfect propriety and faithful- 
ness, prepared him to stand at the head of a band of the most illustrious 
patriots the world ever saw ; a set of men, of whom the great Earl of Chat- 
ham declared in the house of Lords, " That in the master spirits of the 
world, T know not the people or the senate, who in such a complication of 
difficult circumstances, can stand in preference to the delegates of America, 
assembled in general congress in Philadelphia." Such then was George 
Washington, that distinguished instrument in the hand of the infinitely wise 
Jehovah, for establishing the American Republic, a system of government 
the most healthy and happy, the most successful and generous, now under 
heaven, whose benevolent institutions are becoming more and more the ad- 
miration of the world ; and while virtue, liberty and independence continue 
to be esteemed among the children. of men, the name of Washington will 
be pronounced with veneration and respect by millions of intelligent beings. 

Are we to conclude that the introduction of the Gospel precludes the necessi- 
ty of the same universal regard and protection over the whole family of man- 
kind as was evidently the case previous to that event 1 Shall it be taken for 
granted that since the introduction of the gospel through Jesus Christ, 
although we admit and believe that it is designed it should finally encircle 
the whole human race ; since it has not yet been experienced by only a small 
minority of the great family, shall the rest be excluded from the same com- 
passionate regard, that is extended to the most devoted of his .children, as 
he knows how to adapt his requirements to the different state and condition 
of every intelligent being. 

"His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts." 
The insurmountable difficulty seems to be, to reconcile the finite to the infinite, 
to believe in the universality of the love and protection of an uncreated power. 

Of all the professors of Christianity that should doubt the overruling prov- 
idence of God, the Society of Friends should be the last. 

The note appended by the American publishers of the Memoirs of Samuel 
Eothergill, to a paragraph on the subject of war, is so derogatory to the 
character and veracity of Admiral Tyrell, and I do not hesitate in believing, 
would have been exceptionable even to Samuel Fothergill himself, who 
related the circumstance, as I have not discovered that S. Fothergill disbe- 
lieved the intimation, in relation to an engagement with the French fleet 
received by Admiral Tyrell to be divine ; and by what authority the publish- 
lishers of these memoirs assume to set aside this intimation as not of divine 
origin, requires additional proof, that the Society of Friends disbelieve in the 
reality of this intimation as described by Admiral Tyrell to Samuel Fothergill. 

For a further explanation of this remarkable circumstance, allow me to 
quote a few paragraphs from the memoirs of S. Fothergill, (an eminent minis- 
ter of the Society of Friends,) in England, in a letter to Israel and Mary Pem- 
berton dated Warington, 9th mo., 8th, 1760, he says, "At present I enjoy my 
health more uninterruptedly than for some time past ; I have spent two weeks 



53 

at Scarborough, to my advantage and satisfaction of mind. I propose setting 
out to-morrow, towards the Circular Yearly Meeting, for the seven western 
counties, to be held in a small town in Gloucestershire, where are none of our 
society." In tbe foregoing letter S Fothergill mentions a visit of two weeks to 
Scarborough. He was accustomed to visit that place, botb for the benefit to 
health, which he derived from it, and from the stronger motive, of religious duty. 
It was then much frequented, during the season, by many of the nobility and 
higher classes ; amongst whom he was often largely engaged in the ministry, 
they being much in the practice of coming to Friends' Meetings, on such 
occasions. In one of his letters from this place, he says, " I have been merci- 
fully sustained by best help " to labor in the gospel service, in several very 
large crowded meetings, to which many people of distinction resort. This 
seems my principal business here, together with some more retired opportuni- 
ties amongst Friends' families as occasions offer. It was during his visit at 
this time that the following circumstance occurred, as was afterwards related by 
Samuel Fothergill himself, to some friends who accompanied him on his journey 
homewards from London. He told them that during one of his visits to Scar- 
borough, he observed that Admiral Tyrell* attended several Meetings of 
Friends, at that place ; and he took particular notice of the solemnity and 
reverence of the Admiral's behavior during the Meetings, especially in the 
time of silence. One morning the Admiral came up to Samuel in the public 
room, before many of the nobility and gentry, and said, " Mr. Fothergill, I 
have a very high opinion of your people's principles, and practices, especially the 
inwardness and spirituality of your silent worship." Samuel replied, "Admiral 
I think such a testimony from thee, as a man of war, rather extraordinary, 
concerning us and our principles, which are for peace, and against all fighting. 

The other answered " Sir, I am of your opinion in that particular, and fully 
believe that the time will come when nation shall not lift up sword against 
nation, neither shall they learn war any more : but as every dispensation of 
unerring wisdom must have a beginning, so this has had one amongst you, 
but has not yet reached us ; and as to what you hold of a union and com- 
munion the divine intelligence, I know, by happy experience, it is attainable 
in this life ; one instance of which now occurs to me. When I had the 
honor of commanding three of his majesty's ships of war, as commodore, be- 
fore the late peace was concluded, account was brought me that five large 
French men of war were bearing towards us, all superior to ours in men and 
guns : a council of war was called ; and whilst they sat, I retired into my 
cabin alone ; and, after getting into perfect stillness, I heard, in the secret of 
my mind, a voice as intelligible to my understanding as any words ever were 
to my outward senses " G-o, fight the French fleet, for I have delivered them 
into thine hand." 

I rose, reverently thankful for this divine intimation, and went to the coun- 
cil, letting them know that we should fight the French fleet, and that I was 
sure of victory. 

All was made ready, and we engaged ; the event proved the certanity of 
this gracious intimation, we having obtained a complete victory, as is set forth 
in the history of that war. 

The note appended by the American publishers explanatory of what they 
consider the views of Friends, perhaps Orthodox Friends, I take the liberty 
to quote, as follows. 

" Let no one suppose on reading this anecdote that the Society of Friends 
would countenance the belief that Admiral Tyrejl did in reality receive a 

* Richard Tyrell, an English Admiral ; the engagement he mentioned took place in 1758. In 1763 he 
went out to the West Indies as commander of the fleet, and died on his passage home in 1765. 



54 

divine intimation, inasmuch as it would be opposed to the express command 
of the prince of peace " Love your enemies." 

Notwithstanding the society of Friends are opposed to war as incompatible 
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and as inconsistent with the profession of the 
real Christian, and they have borne a testimony against war, since their first 
rise, with a good degree of consistency, as an article of their faith, inscribed 
on the conscience in preference to a written creed, yet nevertheless I have 
never supposed that the society of Friends as a body of professing Christians 
ever believed or maintained that many engaged^n war were not actuated by 
a principle of duty to their country and to their God required of them in sup- 
port and defence of liberty, and the just and equal rights of men : and in the 
struggle have periled their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor ; and 
that the God of the armies of Israel still continues to watch over with an un- 
sleeping eye, and govern the destinies of nations and of individuals. 

We read that the Lord communed with Moses face to face, his will was 
made known to him in a familiar manner, the oft repeated phrase of " And 
the Lord said unto Moses, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them," his servant Moses being the most appropriate medium of communica- 
tion to his chosen people, whose views were outward, and the Almighty 
eondesended to their request to be spoken to through Moses, yet they were 
not left without a witness for God in the secret of the soul approving or re- 
proving them. 

Shall we disbelieve that he still continues to communicate his will im- 
mediately to his servants, in the present day, and make them understand it 
as distinctly as Moses did, in all the various duties assigned the different 
states and degrees of knowledge attained, by them, adapted to the duties re- 
quired of them, whether civil, social, relative, or religious. 

It is the pure in heart God teaches of his ways, those who are governed by 
disinterested motives, and influenced by philanthropy, seeking the good of 
their fellow men without the hope of reward. 

To these are committed the destinies of the bulk of human kind, ministers 
of God in the execution of his will, in all that relates to the physical, civil, 
moral, social, relative and religious condition of the brotherhood of the human 
race. 

Man is instrumental in saving his fellow man from sin, and also in execut- 
ing the decrees of omnipotence in administering his judgments on the wicked 
and the ungodly. Phips, page 118, He hardeneth none till they have 
hardened themselves past all probability of repentance, and then he leaves 
them to the mis-rule of their own beloved lusts and vices ; and what are 
treated as unrighteous ravages though really such in committers of them, are 
respecting the Almighty, the righteous execution of his justice against those 
who have filled up their measure of iniquity, and abused his gracious goodness 
and long forbearance towards them, till he sees fit no longer to continue it to 
them. Thus he punisheth the settled wickedness of some, by the wicked- 
ness of their enemies, which he permits to be turned upon them ; and after- 
wards proceeds in like manner with their chastisers, when they also have 
filled up their measure. 

Notwithstanding I have been endeavoring to prove that although man 
was created a free agent, with liberty to rebel against the divine government, 
and to walk in the way of his own choosing, yet God will, and does, most as- 
suredly, bring him to judgment, and overrule and frustrate the designs of the 
wicked whenever he sees fit to do so, and rules in awful majesty over all 
created intelligence. 

We read that the good man's ways are ordered of the Lord, which is in ac- 
cordance with the views I have advanced, consequently he continually 
watches over and guides the footsteps of the devoted traveler Zionward. 



55 

. The introduction of the Gospel state, or the renewal of it by Jesus Christ, 
proves that infinite wisdom designed to teach his people himself, that in the 
beginning God communed with Adam by an immediate spiritual intercourse 
which has been continued without interruption down to the present day, with 
perhaps it may be said a partial variation in the case of the children of Israel, 
yet even under the law the light shining into the soul, regulating the con- 
science in approving or reproving them, as it is abundantly evident that God 
has not lftft himself without a witness in the soul, since it pleased him to 
create it and clothe it with a body of flesh, in the purpose he designed for the 
Glory of an immortal being in working out his own salvation by an entire 
submission to the government of the prince of peace. 

That although man by refusing to comply with the terms proposed, loses 
the paradisaical state, exerting his free agency, steps out from under the 
Divine government, presuming to know good and evil for himself, regardless 
of that flaming sword which turns every way to keep the way of the tree of 
life ; to keep the power of salvation in his own hands, which consists in noth- 
ing more or less than obedience to manifested duty, man's rational powers 
alone, being an insufficient guide in his pathway to the kingdom of heaven. 
The all-merciful Jehovah witnessing the condition of his erring children, 
condescends to meet them in their outward views of happiness by visiting them 
through outward and instrumental means, as introductory to the Gospel state, 
or as a schoolmaster to instruct them in first rudiments of the christian faith. 

In all the various dispensations of God to his creature man, he has never 
surrendered his government over the final destinies of the race : 

Allowing him the largest liberty consistent with his design, or the well-be- 
ing of his dependent children, he rules unseen amidst the conflicting ele- 
ment of strife, and he is perfectly familiar with all the sufferings of human 
nature, under all possible conditions of existence. 

Our finite views of the character of Jehovah, rationally leads to the con- 
clusion, that the nearer we approach to the perfection of our being, in the 
order of the creation of intellectual existence here on earth, the nearer we 
harmonize with the Divine intelligence ; although we can add nothing to the 
Divine perfections, or increase the happiness of infinity, yet the righteous and 
the good approximate that happy state to which their works entitle them, and 
the love of God encircles these, although he may leave ninety and nine, and 
seek the one that is lost, or that has strayed from the fold, he leaves them 
not without sufficient grace, to guard them in the hour of trial, or in the 
absence of their dear redeemer; their faith in the power that has heretofore 
saved them, under powerful temptations, is sufficient for every emergency : 
therefore they can steadfastly abide the time of his return. It is also said 
there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repentate than over the 
ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. 

Shall we understand from this God loves the sinner better than the saint, 
or that his compassionate regard for the wicked, even those who have sinned 
out the day of their visitation, and gone down to the grave without repentance. 
According to the philosophy of Henry James as it appears in a paragraph 
quoted by the Tribune from his book on the Problem of evil, He says, 
" Christianity is the doctrine of the eternal and perfect union of God and man 
in the person of Jesus Christ. The eternal Father did not take upon him an 
angelic nature, for He was already in sympathy with angels and able to ad- 
minister to all their necessities. He took upon him the nature of man on 
earth, a nature so corrupted by the love of self and the love of the world 
that all its primal brightness was obscured, and He had no longer any means 
of understanding its wants, or of sympathizing with its fearful sorrows : He 
took upon him a body born of woman, and she in all probability as to her 



56 

I 
natural characteristics, one of the basest of her kind, in order that by this 
fruit of her womb He might put his finger upon the pulse of the lowest hell, 
and eternally assuage the fires of its otherwise implacable lusts. Henceforth, 
then, so far as God Himself is concerned, all men are in like propinquity to 
Him. 

He stands, and forever will stand, as tenderly related to the lowest devil 
in hell as to the most seraphic angel in heaven; and to compassionate the 
devil, therefore, under the impression that he is at all prejudiced at the divine 
hand, is to. do a flagrant outrage to the truth of the divine natural humanity. 
He who out of an hundred sheep, loses one, loves the one which is lost more 
than the ninety and nine which had never strayed : and so we are bound to 
conceive of the divine love in its direction toward hell, becoming swathed 
and penetrated and intenerated, so to speak, by an accessory pity, which 
would be misplaced toward. heaven, but which yearns over the lost with the 
unspeakable tenderness of a mother yearning over the weak or imbecile, 
or deformed offspring of her own bowels." 

In this age of wonders, the inventions of man both as it relates to his tem- 
poral and spiritual condition, supercedes the necessity of placing our entire 
dependence on God for salvation. Modern spiritualism and. philosophy usurp 
the powers of omnipotence ; or to qualify the pretensions of the modern phi- 
losopher H. James in his book on the Problem of evil, presuming to have 
discovered a new method, of mixing philosophy with religion, another attempt 
to harmonize philosophy with Christianity ; some new phases are offered for 
our consideration in the bold attempt to scale the heavens by strides of 
human wisdom, but they have their origin in the same serpentine subtlety 
that influenced the first progenitors of the humna race to partake of the 
forbidden fruit. 

Man still continues to exercise his own rational powers of intellectual 
research into the spirituality of that religion of which God alone is the au- 
thor, refusing to believe or depend upon the immediate revelation of the will 
of Jehovah to the spiritual perceptions of the immoral part ; Hence confusion 
worse confounded is the natural consequence. The same disposition and 
determination to know good and evil for ourselves seems to have existed in 
every generation down to the present time. 

Every stratagem which the ingenuity of man could invent to initiate the 
wisdom of man into that which is divine, so that by the dint of his own powers 
he may be enabled to scale the ramparts of heaven, presuming to have con- 
structed a portion of the ladder that, reaches to the abodes of the blessed, 
in order to facilitate his ascendancy toward the mansions of bliss, in some un- 
known locality, in the regions of unlimited space, he soars above the just 
witness into the regions of airy speculation until lie becomes entangled in a 
labarynth of doubts and perplexities, which but little short of a miracle can 
extricate him. I quote a few words more from H. James : — " The Deity is 
henceforth implicated in human affairs, as prior to the incarnation he was 
not. He is now the source and origin of the mighty stream of progress, and 
all its tiny rivulets are beginning to reflect the ample parentage. The world 
is bound accordingly to a career of scientific advancement and prosperity, 
such as no uninspired imagination can paint." 

How did it happen that near two thousand years should have elapsed be- 
fore this important discovery was made 1 That antecedent ; tq the coming of 
Christ, God was not implicated in human affairs? How did it happen that 
God confounded the language of a people in an early age, so that they left 
off to build the tower that should reach to heaven? How did it happen that 
God did so miraculously deliver his chosen people from Egyptian bondage, and 
through the instrumentality of his servant Moses, led them through the wil- 



57 

derness to the borders of the promised land? How did it happen that he 
drove out the nations from before them, and slew thousands by the hands of 
his valiant servants, and finally put them in possession of the promised 
land 1 I have neither time nor space to quote all the numerous instances 
to prove that God was equally implicated in human affairs before Christ wa s 
on earth as since that important event; but that he exercises any peculiar 
attribute in the present day that operates upon the inventive genius of man, 
I am not ready to believe. 

I have never seen H. James' book, consequently am not prepared to solve 
his problem of evil : my remarks are caused by reading a paragraph in the 
Tribune. If his astounding assumptions could be realized, it would un- 
doubtedly revolutionize the settled order of things ; and the weak and credu- 
lous, may really consider it a boon that will be transmitted to unborn gen- 
erations, increasing in a geometrical ratio, until a complete millenium is wit- 
nessed on earth. The views and expressions of H. James in relation to 
Christ, or what he styles the incarnation, are not only novel but extraor- 
dinary in their character and bearing on the doctrines of the christian re- 
ligion, as professed by a large portion of the human family. I presume they 
are at variance with professing christians generally. As it regards my own 
private opinon, they abound in. extremes without precedent or parallel, and 
in my very humble and inexperienced judgment of these important concerns, 
that are calculated to influence the minds of thousands either for good or 
evil ; they reflect with great severity on the mother of Jesus, and also cast 
a great indignity on the character of Jehovah. 

It would require a volume for a full examination and discussion of this 
difficult and perplexing subject, on which "the arguments have not always 
been confined to the small but significant wdapon the pen ; both written and 
verbal communications, have perhaps been backed by deadly weapons wielded 
in defence of each of their peculiar doctrines, creeds, or confessions of faith, 
until rivers of blood have been shed. 

I must be brief: Jesus Christ is almost universaliy believed to be the Son 
God ; therefore it is impossible to be both father and son, and the term father 
signifies an existence prior to the son; he says he received all his power from 
his father, and to insure belief he repeats it abundantly, that he could do 
nothing of himself. As to the body of flesh born of a woman, in which he 
performed all those mighty miracles. I do not consider it essential to know 
in what manner it was formed or created, suffice it to say he calls himself 
the son of man. 

I have no belief that the Almighty Creator was ever clothed with a body 
of flesh, or that it was necessary he should be to enable him to put his finger 
on the pulse of the lowest hell, as it is irrational to suppose that he did 
not always understand all the propensities of the creature he had made, man- 
kind having existed under the same administration for four thousand years 
(except a partial variation towards the children of Israel.) Can it be sup- 
posed that the coming of Christ could enlighten the Father,- or give him the 
least knowledge of the condition of his creature man, that he had not al- 
ways possessed previous to that event, or that the attribute of mercy was 
enlarged thereby 1 I never for a moment supposed that it added anything 
to the divine character, but that his infinity stood always unchangeably the 
same. The coming of Christ I have always considered was solely for the 
good of mankind. 

He needs no experiments, expedients, or experience, to teach Him the 
frailty of human nature. He sees before him one eternal now, and the 
attribute of wisdom or knowledge is also infinite, and not any more deficient 
than any other, that it should become necessary to experiment on his own 
work on the only intelligent being that inhabited earth, 



58 

I quote a few paragraphs from Geo. Bancroft's oration, delivered before the 
New York Historical Society, published in the Tribune : — 

" For the regeneration of the world, it was requisite that the Divine Be- 
ing should enter into the abodes, and the hearts of men, and dwell there ; that 
an idea of him should arise, which should include all truth respecting his 
essence ; that He should be known not only as an abstract and absolute 
cause, but as a perfect being, from whose perfect nature the universe is an 
effluence ; not as a distant providence of infinite power, or uncertain or in- 
active will, but as God present in the flesh ; not as an absolute law-giver, 
holding the material world, and all moral and intelligent existence, in the 
chains of necessity, but as a creative spirit, indwelling in man — his fellow- 
worker and guide. 

"When the Divine Being was thus presented to the soul, He touched at 
once man's aspirations, affections and intelligence, and faith in him sunk 
into the inmost heart of humanity. In vain did the proud and ambitious 
Arius seek to overlay spiritual truth with the fabulous conceptions of hea- 
thenism, to paganize Christianity, and to subordinate its enfranchising power 
to false worship and to despotism. Reason asserted its right of supremacy, 
and the party of superstition was driven from the field. Then Mooned Ash- 
taroth was eclipsed, and Osiris was seen no more in Memphian Grove ; 
then might have been heard the crash of fallen temples of Polytheism ; 
and, instead of them, came that harmony which holds heaven and earth in 
happiest union. 

" Amid all the deep sorrows of humanity during the sad conflict which 
was protracted through centuries for the overthrow of the past and the 
reconstruction of society, the idea of an incarnate God, carried peace into the 
bosom of mankind. That faith emancipated the slave, redeemed the cap- 
tive, elevated the low, lifted up the oppressed, consoled the wretched, in- 
spired alike the heroes of thought, and the countless masses. 

" The down-trodden nations clung to it as to the certainty of their future 
emancipation ; and it so filled the heart of the greatest poet of the middle 
ages — perhaps the greatest poet of all time — that he had no prayer so 
earnest as to behold in the profound and clear substance of the eternal light, 
that circling of reflected light, which showed the image of man. 

" From the time that this truth of the Triune God was clearly announced, 
he was no longer dimly conceived as a remote and shadowy casualty, but ap- 
peared as all that is good, and beautiful and true ; as goodness itself, incar- 
nate and interceding, redeeming and inspiring ; the union of liberty, love and 
light ; the infinite cause, the Infinite Mediator, the infinite in and with the 
universe, as the paraclete and the comforter. The doctrine once communi- 
cated to man was not to be eradicated. It spread as widely, as swiftly, and 
as silently as light; and the idea of God with us dwelt and dwells in every 
system of thought that can pretend to vitality ; in every oppressed nation 
whose struggles to be free, have the promise of success ; in every soul that 
sighs for redemption. 

" This brings me to the last division of my subject. That God has dwelt, 
and dwells with humanity, is not only the noblest illustration of its nature, 
but the perfect guarantee for its progress. We are entering on a new era in 
the history of the race, and though we cannot cast its horoscope, we at least 
may in some measure discern the course of its motion." 

This eloquent writer holds up to the view of mankind some encouraging 
prospects in relation to the progress of the race, and his remarks on the dif- 
ferent subjects embraced within the scope of his address, evince great intel- 
lectual research into the present condition of society, and a large portion of it 
may be justly considered as peculiarly adapted to the occasion for which it 



59 

was prepared, and for ought I know may have been listened to by all present 
at its delivery, with an entire approbation of every sentence contained in it. 

Nevertheless, I take some exceptions to a portion of the paragraphs I have 
taken the liberty to quote, without presuming to comprehend all the bearings 
of the different subjects on which he treated, feeling myself incompetent to a 
full examination of the parts to which I object, yet I will venture a few re- 
marks on some portions of the address, as being partially embraced within 
the subject matter in which I have been endeavoring to elucidate or review. 

The progress of the race as it regards the advancement in scientific re- 
search and philosophical development, is onward, and I readily acknowledge 
that the last half century is probably without a parallel in the history of the 
race ; nevertheless, I shall contend that the inventive genius of man remains 
the same in every age ; the natural gifts, talents and abilities, that belong to 
the race have been distributed with an impartial hand through all generations. 
There must be some inducement, some motive to electrify this latent spark of 
genius, that would otherwise lie dormant in the breast, and the present age is 
peculiarly adapted to the encouragement of the arts and sciences, the accu- 
mulation of wealth being the all-engrossing subject, and the inventions of 
men are brought into requisition in order to monopolize the luxuries of life, 
including everything of a material nature that can add to enjoyment, or com- 
fort of these tabernacles of clay, and also increase the power, popularity, in- 
fluence, and the glory of this world, elevating one man above another solely 
on the ground of the comparative value of his worldly possessions. 

It may with propriety be admitted that the present age has been fruitful 
in the multiplicity of inventions, and also in the improvements on preceding 
ones, the inventions and improvements of each generation, being added to 
the succeeding one ; generation may succeed generation through all the 
countless ages of eternity, adding to the sum, and continually increasing the 
aggregate of human knowledge in science and art. 

When we turn to contemplate the mighty progress of the race in all that 
relates to the sciences, the revolution in mundane affairs, in all that contri- 
butes to the comfort and convenience of these tenements of animated clay, 
the very serious and important question naturally arises as to whether the 
progression of the race is not confined to that which is material, or at least to 
that which is natural, which is comprehended by the natural spirit, or the 
perceptions of those faculties of the rational understanding, which constitute 
the natural man, and raise him above the brute, as by the spirit of a man that 
is in him, he understands the things of a man, but it requires the spirit of God 
to teach him the things of God. 

Those spiritual faculties and preceptions through which God is manifested, 
are of a Divine origin, a spark of Deity, clothed with a body of flesh, consti- 
tuting a probationary state of existence, in which the will of God is distinctly 
understood, with power to perform it, or resist it, in the free agency necessary 
to a choice, either to obey and serve God, or exercise the faculties of the na- 
tural man, independent of God, in the gratification of the animal appetites, 
and the propensities of the rational part, (derived from the five senses,) in the 
acquirement of knowledge in science and art and all that relates to the na- 
tural man. 

The greatest difficulty in the progress of the race, is the assumption of the 
natural man to comprehend the things of God, to preach the gospel by his 
own intellectual powers and the acquirements in scholastic theology ; without 
the life of religion having been experienced, and without any power to com- 
municate to the hearers the word of life which his own spiritual hands had 
never handled, but in many cases the spirit of this world is transcendent, and 
the love of gain, the applause of men, the honor and glory which the pinnacle 



60 

of human greatness inspire, dazzling the eye of the nominal or formal profes- 
sor, who really seems determined to become the heir of two kingdoms : the 
knowledge of good and evil is claimed as a birth-right ; man having become 
the arbiter of his own conscience, and if we are to judge of men by their fruits, 
according to Bancroft's views of the incarnation and mediation of his Triune 
God, man has but little to do in the redemption of his soul from sin. 

If his faith in three Gods is sufficiently strong, that the operation of these 
three infinite powers may be considered sufficient to redeem the soul from sin, 
in the last hours of man's existence on earth after a life, long or short, wholly 
occupied in the pursuit and enjoyment of the things of time. 

This infinite mediator, being so much more merciful than the Father, his 
intercessions will avail to reconcile the Father to his erring children, without 
any effort on their part to take up the cross. 

To suppose that a Mediator is more merciful than the Father, or that this 
Mediator existed co-eternal with Jehovah, is to suppose him equal in power, 
equally omnipotent, equal in all the attributes of infinity, is, I do not hestitate 
to pronounce an impossibility, a doctrine incomprehensible to the rational 
understanding — a doctrine which.our author says spread as widely and swiftly 
and silently as light. 

I am at a loss to conceive how this doctrine is calculated to elevate the 
soul of man, or advance the progress of the race, or enlarge his views of the 
character of Jehovah, by a division into three distinct persons and powers 
of infinity and yet but one God, confusion worse confounded, an ignis fatuus 
that glim mei's in the distance, only to make darkness the more visible, a doctrine 
suited to the dark ages, a doctrine which originated in darkness, surrounded 
by mystery, and shrouded in gloom, incomprehensible to all the powers of 
the natural understanding ; and I have a firm belief that God will never at- 
tempt to confirm a doctrine incomprehensible to infinity ; impossible in the 
very nature of things. He has abundantly declared I am God and there is 
none else, and beside me there is no Savioui'. 

One might be led to suppose that by our author's remarks that when the 
sound of the crash of the fallen Temples of Polytheism vibrated in the ear, 
and as the retiring sound quietly died away, in the solemn awful silence that 
would inevitably follow, compared to the silence in heaven for the space of 
half an hour, that still small voice might have been perceived speaking intel- 
ligibly to the inward ear of the soul, I am Jehovah, the Creator of all, I am 
God and there is none else, and beside me there is no Saviour — an invisible, 
indivisible, spirit, essence and power. 

Our author seems disposed to demolish the Gods of the heathen, yet is still 
partial to a plurality. 

I appeal to the rational understanding of every intelligent being, who may 
peruse these lines, and is not bound in chains of superstition (in which coun- 
sels are continually darkened by words without knowledge) whether they 
have ever discovered in the secret of the soul, more than one operative 
power, which I shall call the spirit of God, showing them with indubitable 
clearness what they ought to do and what they ought to leave undone. 

Notwithstanding the prophets foretold the coming of Christ, their language 
would not warrant, in my humble opinion, the construction our author puts 
on it; that mankind universally for centuries, were consoling themselves 
with the encouraging prospect of the incarnation, that God intended to 
smooth the pathway to the kingdom, that all succeeding generations would 
find it easier to serve God, to overcome the propensities of our common na- 
ture, to answer the end of our creation —than those that had gone before them. 

I have no such idea, as it would make a partial God, man is the tiame in 
every age. 



61 

I consider it as difficult to overcome the world with all ils allurements, in 
the present day, as at any former period previous to the incarnation, and 
mankind, or at least we of the Gentile race, are not naturally, constitution- 
ally, or essentially in any better condition for the coming of Christ, as every 
man has an inherent right to a salvation of which God alone is the author and 
finisher. 

The life and exampfe of Jesus Christ was no doubt intended as a power- 
ful instrumentality in the reformation of the Jewish nation and the introduc- 
tion of the gospel, and as far as the influence of his example and precepts 
have reached the inhabitants of earth, both Jew and Gentile, is vouchsafed for 
our instruction in righteousness, and the doctrines of the christian religion. 
Nothwithstanding, in all probability, an equal number live and die in every 
generation, entirely ignorant of the coming of Christ, consequently have no 
belief or knowledge of his sufferings and death, or that their salvation had 
been purchased by his blood, and shall we suppose they were all lost 

I have no such belief, but that in every nation, kindred, tongue and people, 
they that fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him. 

That it is not necessary to send the Bible (called the gospel) to the hea- 
then, (with colporteurs to read it for them), or man-made ministers, or self- 
constituted missionaries to preach the gospel to the heathen, who, perhaps 
in many instances, have never learned the first lesson in the school of Christ, 
and have need to be instructed themselves what are the first oracles of the 
gospel of peace. 

For the regeneration of the world it was always necessary or expedient, 
even from Adam down through all generations to our own time, that God 
should be manifested in the flesh, or rather in the soul, that the light enlight- 
ening every man coming into the world, was from the beginning. 

When man was made a living soul, God having breathed into him the 
breath of life, henceforth it was necessary that God should tabernacle with 
the. creature lie had made in order to guide him safely through the wilder- 
ness uf this world, having a perfect knowledge of all the propensities, passions, 
desires and temptations that were a part and parcel of his being, the essence 
of his nature, and by submission to the guidance of the spirit of God.man is 
enabled to rule the animals below him with moderation and propriety and 
to preserve that beautiful order in the creation, that infinite wisdom designed. 
God has come down to teach his people himself, and to take up his abode in 
the hearts of the children of men, so that none need to say to his brother 
know thou the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, and this coming down to teach his people, has been from the 
beginning, although a partial mediation by instrumental means, has been 
universal, in turning the minds of the people from darkness to the light of 
t tuth, through all ages and under all conditions of mankind as it appears to 
be necessary frequently to stir up the pure mind by way of remembrance, 
that we do not settle down into a dull, inanimate, lifeless, lukewarm state. 

The devoted and inspired servants of God, have in every age been com- 
missioned to administer to the states and conditions of the people, the 
states of individuals being clearly revealed to them, so they were able to 
administer to their spiritual necessities, without any outward knowledge of 
their condition, their inmost thoughts and afflictions which had never been 
divulged to mortal man, are set before them, and portrayed to their un- 
derstanding with indubitable clearness. 

The various dispensations of God to his creature man are indelibly im- 
pressed upon the tablet of my faith, as with a pen of iron and the point of 
a diamond, which I hope and trust will never be effaced while reason main- 
tains the balancing power in the soul, and if a word or a sentiment has, 



62 

or should at any time drop from my pen, which should be construed into a 
belief that [ undervalue the outward dispensations of God to the children 
of men, or any portion of them, as infinite wisdom accommodates the means 
to the end, the naked heart of man being open to that inscrutable penetrat- 
ing eye which reveals the inmost thoughts and purposes of the soul. 

The world by wisdom knows not God, man having sought out many 
inventions, in order to locate a heaven, within the reach of his own 
finite powers, and I presume there never was a day when the visionary 
schemes and pretentions of a bewildered imagination, were confounding 
the language of the spiritual faculties and perceptions, in relation to the 
salvation of the soul, in relation to communion with God, each man choos- 
ing to go to heaven in his own way and time, searching into mysteries that 
have never been revealed since the world began, not satisfied with condi- 
tions of their own existence, a local habitation and a name on this planet 
is not sufficient to satisfy them, even while the spirit is clothed with flesh and 
blood, they soar above all that is material, and entering the celestial, send 
back to earth intelligence of the conditions of departed generations beyond 
ihe flood, in the quickness of thought ; electricity is completely nonplussed 
in this age of wonders, being clogged by machinery which requires too 
much time to transmit intelligence through the length and breadth of illim- 
itable space, and receive an answer from a departed friend. 

The question naturally arises, where is heaven located ? where does the 
most intelligent and religious portion of the race, who are disposed to fix 
an eternal abiding place, for the immaterial part, locate this happy 
home for the spirits of all generations 1 Is it on some distant planet, 
Avhich no telegraphic eye has ever reached, the light of which has not had 
sufficient time to travel down to earth, since the dawn of creation ? and if the 
material of which all the planets are formed is similar to our own, why seek 
a habitation, or fix an imaginary abode, in an unknown region of material 
existence, that would require bodies of the same nature and substance, or a 
location could never be established'? We find that while inhabitants of 
earth, a local habitation and a name can avail us nothing, as it regards the 
state of the soul. Why should it in another state of existence 1 I feel no dis- 
position to indulge in any speculative views in relation to the place or state 
of the departed, yet I presume it will be almost universally acknowledged, 
that while in this state of being, the condition of the soul determines the 
happiness or misery of every human being, and I consider it rational to be- 
lieve that it will continue to be so throughout all the countless ages of eternity. 

As the consolations of the present life are governed by an obedience to 
manifested duty, notwithstanding trials and afflictions are the portion of the 
righteous, in the ordering of Providence they are permitted to overtake the 
devoted servants of the Most High, to prove their allegiance to that power 
that is able to save. 

We are selfish beings if we serve God for the hope of reward, our love 
being adulterated by selfishness, and the pure stream of life, drawn from the 
wells of salvation, by the power of God, is obstructed in its operation in 
the soul, by the least degree of impurity. 

The life of a christian is devotion to God. I have been endeavoring to 
strengthen the faith, and increase the confidence of those whose minds are 
floating in airy speculations, and who are pursuing visionary schemes of hap- 
piness, and in my limited experience and understanding of what constitutes 
the life of a devoted christian, I feel disposed to make a few remarks as a 
closing paragraph to my essay, on the overruling, all-sustaining, and imme- 
diate protection and guidance of the spirit of God, towards the human fa- 
mily, and more particulary those who put their trust and confidence in him. 



63 

Whenever the faith is sufficiently established in this all-powerful principle, 
the infinite of all that is good, the peace and happiness enjoyed in this state 
of mind exceeds the comprehension of a finite being, attainable by the un- 
assisted powers of the natural understanding. The soul raised above all 
sublunary things rests quietly on the bosom of its God. 

The world viewed from this exalted position of the soul, with all its glory, 
its alluring temptations*of wealth, and all the enjoyments, the varied pi-o- 
pensities of animal nature could realize, even by draining the cup of plea- 
sure to its last dregs, are weighed in the balance and found wanting, they 
cannot satisfy the immortal part — all is vanity. The greatest temptations 
viewed from the pinnacle of worldly glory, sink into insignificance, in com- 
parison of the fulfilment of those duties revealed through the only medium 
of communication with the infinite. 

Silence and retirement, and the stillness of all flesh, when every thought 
on the indulgence of the propensities of animal nature is hushed, and the 
mind is left free to commune with its God ; it is then the soul is prepared 
to receive instruction, the councils of the Most High are opened to the un. 
derstanding. 

It was in this state of mind, many years since, while alone, in awful, 
solemn, reverential silence, I heard the voice of God, speaking as distinctly 
to the inward ear of my soul, as any human voice ever spoke, these words, 
" all that will come may come to God." I had no more doubt of its being 
the voice of Almighty God, than I had of my own existence; as no human 
agency had any thing to do with it, or any knowledge of it, being spoken 
immediately to the soul, independent of the medium of the outward senses ; 
the same still small voice that has spoken to man at various times, while 
under deep probation and trial, and I esteem it a favor to have witnessed 
the gracious condescension of his goodness to my soul, and I trust it is so 
indelibly imprinted on the memory as not to be obliterated while reason re- 
tains its place in the inner man. 

The communion of the Most High with the soul of man, is perhaps not 
very frequently in words intelligibly spoken to the ear of the soul, in the 
present day, without any mediation of the outward ear, as not the least noise 
or sound is perceptible, yet no human voice ever more distinct. 

The revelation of the will of God to us, generally, if I understand it, is 
made known sufficiently for a rule of life, by clear openings to the rational 
understanding of what is our duty to do, and what to leave undone, and as 
we follow the pointings of this light, our path becomes plainer and brighter, 
as we become acquainted with this inward teacher, and no miracle or other 
remarkable display of his power is necessary to confirm our faith, or 
strengthen our feeble resolutions to serve him, having sufficient evidence 
in our own bosoms, what his will is concerning us. 

If I was writing a history of my life I should have to acknowledge my 
delinquency in the fulfilment of those duties, evidently required of me, and 
that 1 stand in need of the councils of the good, instead of endeavoring to 
administer to the spiritual necessities of others, by explaining the way of 
salvation to the honest enquirer after truth, and the reality of a religious life. 
If the way to the kingdom is so plain that the most illiterate may walk 
therein and not err, why should I exert my feeble endeavors to maKe it 
plainer. 

Nevertheless I feel disposed to encourage those whose ideas of happiness 
are not confined to the groveling cares of this life, to the money-making 
mania, to the visionary pursuit of riches that can never be enjoyed, to the 
pride of life attendant on success, to the extravagance and excess into which 
they lead, to the pernicious influence of wealth over the finer sensibilities of 



64 

our nature, to the dangerous inequality in power and influence, under all 
conditions of society, civil or religious. This mighty maelstrom^ although 
its first deviation is gentle, and almost imperceptible, in its tendency towards 
the awful vortex, which is almost sure to engulf the soul of every devotee at 
the shrine of mammon ; why not place a beacon light on the edge of this 
false current or delusive eddy, with a finger pointing to the gulf that has 
swallowed its thousands and its tens of thousands. 

That when the soul that has experienced a deliverance from the bondage 
of sin, from the temptations of flesh and of spirit, and having tasted of the 
joys of heaven, returns to the groveling sensualities of the beastly appetites 
and passions of depraved nature, and seeks to establish a heaven on earth. 
The Pole star becomes eclipsed by the density of the objects that intervene, 
and clouds and thick darkness obstruct the light of the great luminary ; man's 
iniquities obscure the brightness of the sun of righteousness, the soul de- 
pending on the lesser light of human reason, becomes launched into the open 
sea without a compass or a beacon light to guide the lonely mariner to the 
haven of rest and peace. 

If we consider Jesus Christ the pattern of' professing christians, where 
shall we look for examples of humility in the present day ; he declared that 
his kingdom was not of this world, and when tempted with its riches 
and glories, his reply was get thee behind me, for thou savorest not the 
things that be of God. 

He had no liberty to accumulate property or acquire wealth, having but 
little that he could call his own, not even an abiding place, or where to lay 
his head. 

What greater contrast could be drawn between the nominal professor of 
the present day and the real christian 1 What greater insignificance in the 
estimation of the high professor of our own times, than a poor christian, who 
has neither time nor liheriy to add house to house and field to field, or thou- 
sands to thousands, by the d< uble process of labor and the accumulation of 
interest, or the labor of others, wrenched from the poor and needy by the 
iron grasp of usury. Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands 
mourn. If it were excusable for the rich to borrow of the rich and pay 
usurious interest, which I shall not deny, as they stand on the same ground 
with the mercantile community, by profits on wares and merchandise, banish 
avarice from the soul of man, and make room for the generous impulse of 
humanity, and the rate of interest and per centage on wares and merchan- 
dise will be better regulated, no usury laws would be required to regulate 
the interest between man and his fellow man, all would harmonize, the 
higher law would always predominate, and herein we should witness the 
advancement of the race toward the goal of the brotherhood in the perfection 
of our being, in the fulfilment of that all-important duty of doing unto others 
as we should wish others to do unto us under similar circumstances. 

By adopting the golden rule as a standard of righteousness, we approach 
the summit of perfection where the brotherhood of the race can fraternize 
under all the various dispensations, creeds, and confessions of faith, that di- 
vide professing Christendom, into many sects, as righteousness exalteth a 
nation without reference to its doctrinals. 

It is the state of the soul that determines the destiny of nations and of in- 
dividuals. God looketh at the heart. 

From the heights of Pisgah we behold the promised land of spiritual ca- 
naan, from an elevation raised above all earthly-mindedness, we can discern 
the spirit land, or resting place, that peaceable state of mind, described as a 
spiritual Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, for the weary traveler even on this 
side the grave ; without knocking at the gates of heaven for an entrance, 



65 

before the time appointed, without reference to the condition of the soul, as 
to its fitness, tc mingle with the saints in bliss. 

Having reached the borders of the spirit land while clothed with mortality, 
we are not impatient for admittance into regions unknown, the state and 
condition of the immortal part is under the immediate notice and protection 
of the allwise and merciful Jehovah. 

If we take up a rest*short of the true rest it will always end in disappoint- 
ment, as all false rests must be broken up ; man is prone to take up his rest 
in the second heaven, in the enjoyment of temporal things, in maintaining a 
good moral character, fulfiling the outward forms and ceremonies of religion, 
he glides smoothly along the current of popular opinion, without sufficiently 
understanding the condition of his own spirit, " man know thyself, enough 
for man to know ;" if we are not sufficiently concerned for the well-being of 
our own spirits, how can it be expected we can be instrumental in promoting 
the welfare of the spiritual condition of the brotherhood of the race ; our lives 
and example produce the fruits by which we are known, men do not gather 
grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. " Is not the life more than meat, and the 
body than raiment ?" 

Is not the spiritual condition of the soul of more importance than all the 
temporal concerns, for the comfort of these bodies of clay ; they are second- 
ary and it is promised they shall be added ; nevertheless, mankind generally 
appear to prefer, first to make sure of an abundance of the good things of 
this life, to provide largely for the comforts of the body, and then add reli- 
gion when convenient, as of secondary importance, that when the gratifica- 
tion of the senses is glutted by indulgence, or old age is forced to acknow- 
ledge no pleasure in them, then it is time enough to seek the kingdom of 
heaven, on the eve of our departure to mingle with a world of spirits, that 
have no need of the treasures of earth ; yet the miser confides in his wealth 
to the latest hour of his existence, having no other God on whom he can 
rely, even in the greatest emergency He hugs the gods of silver and gold 
that enchain him to earth. The soul of the miser being so completely ab- 
sorbed with the things of earth, that the immaterial spirit partakes (appar- 
ently) of the nature of the natural snimal spirit that goes downward to the 
earth, its thoughts and its desires dwelling continually on that which is ma- 
terial. The earth entombs all its affections, its treasures, and its hopes. 
The gods of silver and gold are the idols that attract all its adoration, its 
worship although sincere, is confined to the perpetual accumulation of its 
gains. The whole man, body, soul and spirit being under the influence and 
government of the natural propensities, which according to the laws of gravi- 
tation are tending downwards continually, and may be justly compared to a 
bottomless pit. 

After a life spent in the accumulation of the treasures of earth is about 
to close, and the world is receding from the view of mortal eyes, the pov- 
erty and nakedness of that soul, although in possession of the wealth of the 
Indies, can carry nothing out of the world with it. If we believe in the im- 
mortality of the soul, here is a picture of the condition of an immaterial 
spirit on the confines of eternity, too awful to behold ; we shrink amazed, we 
stand aghast at the solemn spectacle. 

My finite comprehension of the state of a soul disrobed of mortality, 
under circumstances like these, is altogether inadequate to form any conclu- 
sion as to its real condition in another state of being ; nevertheless I am con- 
soled that whether in time or in eternity we are in the hands of a merciful 
God, whose providence is over all his works. 

7 



66 

OBSERVATIONS ON FUNERAL SERMONS IN RELATION TO THE UNDUE PRAISE 

OF THE DEAD. 

To eulogize the dead indiscriminately, without reference to character or 
standing of the individual, amongst the religious or more considerate por- 
tion of the community, is becoming an evil of great magnitude, sufficient to 
alarm the survivors who understand the real character of the departed, and 
are capable of judging how far the funeral sermon is appropriate, and wherever 
it is inconsistent with the life of the deceased ; the motives by which the 
speakers are influenced, are best known to themselves, yet I shall venture to 
pronounce it extremely reprehensible, as presuming to send the individual 
to heaven without the requisite qualifications for the enjoyment of happiness, 
and to which his works do not entitle him in time or eternity. 

This falsifying the character of the deceased I consider must be painful 
to surviving friends, and offensive in the Divine sight, in thus daring to pre- 
sume to interfere in the councils of infinite wisdom, in regulating the final 
destiny of a soul, at the bar of the Supreme ; where the free agency of 
man is entirely suspended, and can never reach ; where nothing short of the 
revelation of the spirit of the infinitely wise Jehovah upon the spirits of his 
devoted servants, has any man ever been commissioned to comfort the 
mourners in seasons of affliction, when the soul is separated from its loved 
ones on earth, and bids a final adieu to all that is terrestrial, that God may 
have in some instances seen meet in his wisdom to furnish even poor finite 
man, with an evidence that the soul was safely landed on the celestial 
shores, that for the consolation and encouragement of surviving friends, he 
condescends to meet them in this trying hour, that is so peculiarly adapted 
to lift the soul from earth, and elevate its aspirations above all mundane 
things, with desires raised for a more perfect understanding of those spiritual 
realities which religion affords. 

This unwarrantable praise of the dead, must proceed from a desire to ob- 
tain the good will of the living, in order to establish themselves in their fa- 
vor for some selfish ends ; presuming to have the power of turning sinners 
into saints in the twinkling of an eye, they smooth the pathway to the king- 
dom in the quickness of thought, when perhaps there were but a few traits 
in the character of the deceased to warrant it, placing the survivors at per- 
fect ease in their sins, (if they should not happen to be included with the 
righteous) assuring them by example and precept, that a new era had dawn- 
ed upon man, that it is not essential to live the life of the righteous, in order 
for a passport to the mansions of bliss ; that however various our conditions 
may be while on our pilgrimage through time, as it relates to our standing or 
acceptance with God, or the approbation of man, especially if we keep within 
the pale of the moral law, there will ultimately be no distinction, no dividing 
line, at the final close ; so that religion may be banished from the earth, and 
still mankind will most assuredly be saved with an everlasting salvation, and 
the voyage of life rendered delightful, no storms to ruffle the bosom of the 
ocean, to prevent the mariner from reaching the desired port in safety. 

Placing no dependence on the arm of Omnipotence, why ask any favors 
from him 1 If we can steer our barks, across the trackless ocean, without re- 
gard to the means provided for our safety, perhaps we may with some "pro- 
priety assume to govern and direct the salvation of our own souls, and claim 
a title to the crown of life, without having fought the good fight, or encoun- 
tered the trials of the righteous. 

I have no language that can explicitly portray the pernicious tendency of 
praising the dead, when in the observations of a whole life we have seen but 
little to praise ; while clothed with mortality their failings stood out in bold 
relief before their fellow men ; but in an instant of time all is changed, he 
has made a peaceful close, •' he has died the death of the righteous." 



67 

It is by our fruits that we are known, and when furnished with conclusive 
evidence that the character, the daily walks, the whole life of an individual, 
with whom we are perfectly familiar, rises no higher than the moral law, 
that through the fear of man, for the sake of his own reputation, he will 
refrain from acts of wickedness, and preserve a good moral character 
amongst his fellow men, having unrestrained liberty under this moral law 
to pursue after riches,*and the glory and honor of the world, and in his deal- 
ings amongst men take the advantage whenever he can get it, and in the dis- 
position or sale of his produce or merchandise is governed by no other law than 
the most that he can get, whether he is dealing with the rich or the poor it 
matters not, except where poverty and necessity give him greater advanta- 
ges to oppress and grind the faces of the poor. 

The consideration or reflection that it was ever required of him to do unto 
others as he would wish others to do unto him, finds no lodgment in his soul, 
although we are driven to the necessity of including him as one on a com- 
mon level with the race, who has received a portion of that light that en- 
lightens every man coming into the world, but exercising his free agency, steps 
out from under the Divine government, and acknowledges no Supreme, his ra- 
tional faculties are his only guide, living as it were without God in the world, 
he acknowledges no law higher than the moral law, which is sufficiently wide, 
even broad enough to give latitude for an experimental knowledge of placing 
all his affections and desires on things that are material, until the whole man 
is swallowed up in the pursuit and enjoyment of the things of earth, and 
those groveling, miserly dispositions have entire possession of the soul. 

Judging by those spiritual faculties that Grod has given us, we come to the 
irresistible conclusion that such a soul is not in a happy state while clothed 
with mortality, and not having a foretaste of the joys of heaven, what hope 
can there be, that when time shall be no more, of being ushered (unprepar- 
ed) into the mansions of bliss ? 



ESSAY ON THE STATE OF MANKIND. 

Considerations on the condition of mankind and the motives that influence 
the conduct of almost the entire universality of the race, both as it relates to 
the boundless pursuit of the treasures of earth, and an improper indulgence 
of the propensities of animal nature, with a ceaseless activity in the acquire- 
ment of all knowledge attainable by the intellectual capacities of a finite be- 
ing. Contemplating the brief existence allotted man upon earth, and that in 
his free agency is determined his final destiny : Judging of the state of man- 
kind by their fruits, we are led to the irresistible conclusion that a profession 
of a belief in the immortality of the soul, is only traditional (although being 
nearly universal) does not appear to be founded in that saving faith that 
works by love to the purifying of the heart (at least with a vast majority of 
the race) but there appears " some doubt of the immortality of the soul at 
bottom " which has a perceptible influence over the life and conduct. 

That as it regards a firm and unshaken belief in our immediate accounta- 
bility to that power that created and sustains the world, while probationers 
of earth, is not warranted by our observations on the general conduct of man- 
kind, yet nevertheless there are no doubt a few that have not bowed the knee 
to baal, but acknowledge their allegiance to the great supreme. 

An impartial observer on the conduct and actions of men would reasonably 
conclude, that our faith or belief in a future state was weak, supported by a 
single thread, and that the space that separated us from a level with the 
brute was narrowed down to a hair's breadth, and that whatever superiority 



68 

we possess over the brute is derived from the rational powers, that belong to 
our rank in the order of creation, reason being the product of the five senses, 
in the argument, is all that raises us above the brute, and if the argument be 
true, and the five senses perish with the body, annihilation is the awful re- 
flection of a thinking being. 

Notwithstanding these views may not be in accordance with professing 
Christendom being infidel in their nature and character, yet I hold to the 
maxim that actions speak louder than words, and that a tree is known by its 
fruit. The author of these pages is a firm believer in the providence of God. 
and desires that nothing may drop from his pen calculated to weaken the faith 
of a single rational intelligent being in the immediate supervision of an al- 
mighty power over all intellectual and material existence. 

Generation succeed generation, in the transmission of the example and 
precept, to lay up for ourselves and our children, treasures on earth, and the 
whole man body, soul and spirit is exerted to its utmost capacity, their united 
energes are engaged with unceasing and eternal vigilance, I say eternal ; if 
the generations that have preceded us, were influenced by the same spirit, for 
thousands of years in retrospect, and if all that have gone before us, save a 
few in every generation, why not eternal 1 unless man shall at some future 
day be born without these propensities, or his free agency terminate. If the 
temptations are the same in every age, I see nothing to hinder their eternal 
duration. In our serious reflection on the state of mankind, it might seem 
reasonable to suppose that the wisdom of ages would have taught us the 
lesson that all men are mortal, and that '^man wants but little here below, 
nor wants that little long," and that his true interest consisted in his duty to 
God and the good of his fellow men ; in the exercise of those spiritual faculties 
and perceptions, that are developed by experience, as we walk straight forward 
in the narrow path that leadeth unto life, being guided by that unerring light 
which enlighteneth every man coming into the world, it being in the spiritual 
faculties that the heavenly dispositions, of love, mercy, charity, and a host of 
others have their origin, and which form a part of our very being, and the 
most noble part, derived from heaven, and being immaterial in their nature 
and immortal in their duration, they constitute the superiority of man over 
the brute ; The body is the earthly tabernacle prepared by God, for every 
rational intelligent soul in the order of man's existence as connected with the 
material universe, from the beginning of creation to the present day, and will 
in all probability be continued through all the countless ages of eternity, as a 
temporary residence of the spirit, for the fulfilment of his own purposes, in 
thus placing us in a probationary state of trial in order to introduce us into 
an acquaintance with himself, that by a perfect submission to the teaching of 
his spirit, as free agents, we are prepared for the enjoyment of happiness, for 
that heavenly state designed by infinite wisdom for his creature man. 

The state and condition of the mind of every individual may vary in some 
degree from that of every other, not only in its original construction, but in 
the exercise of those functions, which form a constituent part of the natural 
man, although created with propensities of the same nature, yet differing in 
the preponderance of one propensity over another, in accordance with the 
constitutional dispositions of the mind, and the various appetites and passions 
of animal nature. 

Infinite wisdom having a perfect knowledge of the temptations that assail 
us under every possible condition of existence, as it is irrational to suppose 
that the power that creates is unable to save, or that any partiality exists in 
the order of creation, that renders it easier for one man to overcome the pro- 
pensities of our nature than for another. 

I am not writing an essay on the system of man, but simply exerting my 



69 

feeble endeavors to make a brief exposition of the state of mankind, as it 
relates to their religious standing in the sight of heaven, and the state of the 
soul as it regards its position, in the fulfilment of the duties assigned, with 
some remarks and considerations contrasting the degrees of happiness or 
misery consequent upon the conduct of men. 

Notwithstanding the author of our being has furnished us with a portion of 
his own spirit or essence sufficient to guide, instruct, and support us through 
all the trials of time, under every dispensation, designed for our advancement 
in the saving knowledge of the truth, both as it relates to our spiritual and 
temporal conserns. 

A vast majority of mankind apparently engage in the daily pursuit of the 
consolations that earth affords without raising one grateful aspiration to the 
bountiful dispenser of all these blessings, like the swine that devour the fruit 
that falls from the tree, without looking up to ascertain from whence it comes. 

If our desires to obtain the treasures of earth, were confined to the real 
necessities of these bodies, a very large proportion of time and labor might 
be saved and devoted to the improvement of the mind. 

I have no difficulty in beliving that the inventive genius 0/ man, or the 
faculty of understanding, that can improve upon the labors of others, is as 
much a gift of the creator, as any other faculty conferred upon the rational, 
and intellectual faculties of the race. The only difficulty in the contempla- 
tion of the use of the inventive faculty seems to be, as to how far it may be 
in accordance with the divine mind to make use of the power conferred ; per- 
haps some would place no limit or attempt to set bounds to the exertion of a 
faculty so useful to man ; and I shall readily admit that so long as the 
rational faculties are employed in the invention or improvement of machinery, 
or that a mechanical skill is left without control in the manufacture of 
every thing necessary for the comfort and convenience of these bodies, I 
should not object to extending the powers of the rational understanding to 
their utmost stretch. 

In the contemplation of what is termed the progress of the race, shall we 
set no bounds to the inventive genius of man ? in the creation (if I may use 
the term) of useless ornaments almost innumerable, to gratify the pride of 
poor fallen man. 

The very serious question naturally arises as to whether we are at liberty 
to encourage every useless ornament, merely to please the eye, or the inven- 
tion of musical instruments to please the ear, I shall take the side of the util- 
itarian, nevertheless I feel disposed to make a few remarks by way of a more 
clear elucidation of the subject, as would probably be used by those who 
advocate the beautiful, in every branch of mechanical science, to the end of 
the chapter. 

Some who move in the higher circles of professing christians, have re- 
cently in eulogizing the works of art, made the bold attempt to advocate the 
science of the beautiful, as far as appears, without any limit, except it should 
be the want of funds to extend it indefinitely. 

They argue that the earth is clothed with an endless diversity of the beau- 
ties of nature, that are so peculiarly calculated to adorn the works of crea- 
tion, both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The works of an Almighty 
Power are so exquisitely beautiful, that man is at liberty to take examples or 
pattern from them, in the almost endless varieties, which the inventive genius 
of man has attempted to imitate and bring into requisition, as ornamental, in 
the various departments of the science of the beautiful, and the argument is, 
that as infinite wisdom has created these things to please the eye of a rational 
being. When the finite wisdom of man attempts to solve the mysteries in 
the works of creation, or to assign his reasons for the infinite variety of form 



70 

or color, his rational powers are introduced into a labyrinth of perplexity, 
which the light emanating from the feeble lamp of reason, can never fully 
extricate him, or reveal to the human understanding ; and the light of reve- 
lation has never vouchsafed to unfold the mysteries of creation to a finite 
being. Therefore perhaps it would be equally in accordance with reason to 
assign the beautiful colors in the vegetable kingdom to their various natures, 
and all the forms of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, as precisely calcu- 
lated to please the eye of the great architect and maker of them all, without 
reference to the outward vision of his creature man, or if in his wisdom he 
may have planned them to suit the vision of organic nature. 

I consider it altogether presumptuous as well as preposterous, to be con- 
tinually searching into or attempting to analyze the works of creation beyond 
the limits designed a finite being. 

I shall endeavor in a few brief remarks to explain my views as it regards 
man's free agency, in the attainment of the knowledge or the real participation 
in the boundless extravagance, produced by an unlimited pursuit in the science 
of the beautiful, in its various ramifications as illimitable as infinity. 

In my observations on the condition of society, I propose to examine some 
of the prominent deviations from the path of rectitude, and to "moralize on 
the state of man," when the inventive genius of man is confined exclusively 
to the manufacture of articles or the embellishment of any object purely orna- 
mental, and strictly confined to the beautiful to please the eye together with 
all musical instruments calculated for no other purpose than to please the ear. 

Allowing this branch of science to be of no practical utility to man , I feel 
disposed to examine the subject in reference to the effects produced in its 
operation and bearing on the community, more especially those who make a 
profession of Christianity. 

Notwithstanding the science of the beautiful may have originated in the 
early ages of the race, the manufacture of ornaments merely to please the 
eye, without regard to the least utility, which have been handed down from 
generation to generation, with improvements upon them, and accumulations 
to the common stock have been added, until all human calculations must fail 
to enumerate ; and at the present day a large portion of the human family 
are engaged in the exercise of these faculties, in the invention and manufac- 
ture of useless ornaments, in order to obtain the means of subsistence, many 
of whom perhaps never thought of any impropriety in thus obtaining an hon- 
est living for themselves and their families, more especially where genera- 
tions have succeeded each other in the same employment, and the same in- 
centives to gain ; education and tradition are powerful obstacles in the way 
of reformation. 

If we hold to the doctrine of utilitarianism, some may say that we should 
have a drab-colored world, or that every thing in use would retain the color 
nature gave it, and all artificial colors would be banished from the earth. I 
hold that if man can derive any benefit from artificial colors he is at liberty 
to use them. Allowing mankind a degree of liberty to please the eye with 
ornaments, and where shall we draw the line 1 I answer I know no better 
rule than the dictates of a man's own conscience, regulated by the light that 
enlightens every man coming into the world. 

If mankind were delivered from the shackles of education, tradition, su- 
perstition and example, we might have some rational ground of hope of a 
reformation in the use of the things of earth. If Christ came to set us an 
example and we are informed that he wore a coat without a seam, professing 
to be christians why are we not bound to follow his example % we are also in- 
formed that his reputed father was a carpenter, and that he probably worked 
with his father, and was by trade a carpenter ; history does not furnish us 



71 

with any records of his ingenuity in the invention or manufacture of use- 
less ornaments to embellish the house he may have assisted -in building, or 
for any other purpose, and there is no probability that he would, or did jus- 
tify the use of time or money in the manufacture of useless ornaments to 
gratify the vanity of man, as he enjoined his followers to let their mod- 
eration appear unto all men. Therefore, if we take Christ for an example, 
what argument have ^, that favors an unrestrained liberty in the boundless 
extravagance in the use of ornaments solely to please the eye, so pro- 
fusely lavished on the habitations, the equipages, the furniture and the per- 
sons of a race of intelligent beings 1 Although my theme my not be popular 
I feel constrained by impressions of duty, to proceed a little further in the 
explanation of my views on a subject which affects more or less a very large 
portion of mankind, and since the intellectual capacities of the race, 
engaged in writing in \ the present day, are almost exclusively devoted to 
romance. If the most splendid talents for writing are engaged in producing 
works of fiction, and the advancement of science, it is left for those whose 
talents or abilities for composition are of an inferior order, to endeavor to 
engage the attention of mankind in the more serious consideration of import- 
ant subjects that are deeply interesting to us all ; the question arises why 
attempt to write anything not suited to the taste of the public mind, or what 
prospect is there that any publication of a serious nature, will be read 1 
Notwithstanding the discouraging prospect that my feeble endeavors may 
prove sufficient to arrest the attention or excite the susceptibilities of the mind 
to a serious contemplation of the relation in which we stand in a moral and 
religious point of view to an omnipresent God, that beholds at a glance the 
state and condition of every rational soul, I shall proceed, after this small 
digression, to examine the subject of the vain and pernicious tendency of the 
multiplication of ornaments to gratify the pride of man. It would seem that 
a little reflection on the loss of time, employed in the creation of trifles 
light as air, by thousands of the human family, of the various ages from 
youth to grey hairs, in almost every portion of the globe where civilization 
has extended, would be sufficient to convince a candid mind of the deleterious 
effects, of this,deluge of worthless trash, circulating through all the channels of 
commercial intercourse, into the various ramifications of society, being pro- 
ductive of no more real benefit, (although valued at millions) than the pyra- 
mids of Egypt are to the surrounding inhabitants ; these mighty structures 
being erected in the folly and the pride of man. 

We have only to take a survey of our large cities to become witnesses of 
an increasing spirit of rivalry in the unnecessary and extravagant outlay of 
money in the erection of private dwellings and all the costly appendages 
attached thereto. 

Where is the man that " dare to meet his naked heart alone," that can 
justify such useless extravagance, when perhaps thousands are suffering in 
poverty and wretchedness around them ? The example of a rich man that 
is striving to excel in the splendor of his dwelling and equipage is (in my 
humble opinion) doing more harm to society than some offences considered 
criminal, because, a far greater number suffer from the pernicious tendency 
and potent inflence of wealth, many whose means are more limited, striving 
to follow in the wake of their more wealthy neighbors, until their expenses 
exceed their income, producing insolvency and its train of evils. 

It seems passing strange to a reflecting mind that this reckless spirit is 
apparently on the increase, whilst insolvencies stand like mercuries and 
kindly warn us of our danger of being plunged into this vortex that has en- 
gulphed its thousands and its tens of thousands. 

It is needless to dwell on a description of what we may every day witness 



72 

or to remind us of scenes familiar to all ; the evils that grow out of this state 
of things would require a volume fully to elucidate. 

The sudden acquisition of wealth is always dangerous to the human mind, 
and when acquired through the impure channels, of oppression and injustice, 
or derived from profits on the vanities that adorn these bodies of clay, the 
possession of millions can never compensate for the loss of that peace, which 
it is said the world cannot give neither can it take away, while the heart is 
pure and the actions blameless. 

It may be said that if the utilitarian plan were immediately adopted, it 
would not only produce an entire revolution in the commerce of the world, 
and diminish the value of productive industry ; the demand for all useless 
fabrics would entirely cease and those engaged in the manufacture and sale 
of these' vanities would be thrown out of employment and incalculable suffer- 
ing would be the consequence. 

I admit that this would seem to be a very natural and rational conclusion, 
nevertheless a little reflection might teach us that if the wealthy or those 
who purchase ornaments would give the same amount to those that relinquish 
this pernicious and useless traffic, until they could find employment in use- 
ful occupations. By the introduction of utilitarianism the world would be 
relieved from all useless labor, which presses like an incubus on the vital 
energies of the people. 

A complete revolution would be produced in mundane pursuits, our mod- 
eration would begin to appear unto all men, and the final conclusion of the 
wisest of men, that " vanity of vanities, all is vanity," would be the pass- word 
through the earthly abodes of intellectual existence. 

The experience of Solomon under the almost infinite indulgence in the 
gratification of the propensities of the natural man, both as it related to his 
sensual appetites of animal nature, and the aspiration of the intellectual 
capacities of his spiritual existence to attain to the summit of earthly enjoy- 
ments, and to ascend the pinnacle of the honor and the glory of this world. 

Here we have the indubitable proof of the vanity and insufficiency of all 
earthly pursuits in order to satisfy the desires of an immortal spirit. 

As the invention and manufacture of musical instruments, and the study 
of music, comes within the sphere of my observations on the vanities of time, 
I shall attempt a few remarks anticipating the argument of the lovers of mu- 
sic, for the very good reason that I have made use of the same, in days that 
are past, viz : that as the ear is formed for music and delights in the sounds 
that proceed from the various instruments, in the hands of skilful performers, 
and as nothing was created in vain, shall we disannul the operations of nature, 
or curtail the enjoyments incident to the propensities of animal existence? 

Notwithstanding the plausible reasons offered for, or in favor of the practice 
of music, the experience of the wise and the good have abundantly proved 
that its effect on the mind is prejudicial to its improvement in the more im- 
portant concerns of life and has a tendency to divert the attention from se- 
rious contemplation and induce habits of idleness which too frequently lead 
to vice and dissipation. Even in the higher walks of life and amongst the 
most respectable and influential citizens, encouragement or at least permis- 
sion is given to their children to learn the art, and to practice without re- 
straint or limitation. 

The language of the youthful poet if we judge of mankind by their fruits, 
is adapted to a large majority who would consider the entire disuse of music, 
as producing a vacuum in the enjoyments, recreation and pleasure, as well as 
in the performance of worship, and the inspiration of courage in the warrior 
on the eve of an engagement in the deadly strife of conflicting armies on the 
field of battle, that all the united energies of scientific men could never fill. 



73 

'Music, all-powerful o'er the human mind, 

Can still each mental storm, each tumult calm, 
Soothe anxious care on sleepless couch reclined, 
And e'en fierce angers' furious rage disarm. 

" At her command the various passions lie ; 
She stirs to battle, or she lulls to peace, 
Welts th# charmed soul to thrilling ecstasy, 
And bids the jarring world's harsh clangor cease. 

" Her martial sounds can fainting troops insph*e 
With strength unwonted, and enthusiasm raise, 
Infuse new ardor, and with youthful fire 

Urge on the warrior, grey with length of days. 

" Far better she when with her soothing lyre 

She charms the fauchion from the savage grasp, 
And melting into pity vengeful ire, 
Looses the bloody breast-plate's iron clasp, 

" With her in pensive mood I long to roam, 

At midnight's hour, or evening's calm decline, 
And thoughtful o'er the falling streamlets' foam, 
In calm seclusion's hermit walks recline. 

" Whilst mellow sounds from distant copse arise, 
Of softest flute or reeds harmonic joined, 
With rapture thrill'd each worldly passion dies, 
And pleas'd attention claims the passive mind. 

" Soft through the dell the dying strains retire, 

Then burst majestic in the varied swell; 

Now breathe melodious as the Grecian lyre, 

Or on the ear in sinking cadence dwell. 

" Romantic sounds 1 such is the bliss ye give, 

That heaven's bright scenes seem bursting on the soul, 
With joy I'd yield each sensual wish, to live 
For ever 'neath your undefiled control. 

" Oh surely melody from heaven was sent, 

To cheer the soul when tired with human strife, 
To soothe the wayward heart by sorrow rent, 
And soften down the rugged road of life." 

Although not adopting precisely a mode of argument as designed by the 
style of a dialogue, but have briefly advanced some views that would natu- 
rally be used by the advocates of music, I shall endeavor (in a limited space) 
to assign my reasons for its discontinuance. 

Notwithstanding, I have attempted to advocate the entire abandonment of 
music on all occasions and under all circumstances, as of no practical benefit 
to a rational being. Nevertheless, I readily acknowledge that the mass of 
mankind having been educated in the belief that music was practically ad- 
vantageous in social, religious, and martial life, and many undoubtedly inno- 
cently practice it on the various occasions which the customs of men have 
introduced in the various ages of the world. 

Although I shall encounter a host in opposition to the views I have under- 
taken to advocate and elucidate, as being prejudicial to the best interests, or 
at least the enjoyments of mankind ; I shall nevertheless attempt to prove 
that the total abandonment of music, in connection with the adoption of the 
utiliarian plan, are two prominent characteristics in the advancement of the 
race toward that simplicity exemplified in the person and character of Jesus 
Christ. 

As my observations on the state of mankind are more particularly confined 



74 

to the professors of Christianity, what encouragement have we from the ex- 
ample and precepts of that perfect pattern of righteousness, for the practice 
of music 1 and what can justify the boundless extravagance in the useless 
vanities of this inventive and degenerate age 1 The adoption and pursuit of 
these vanities occupies so large a portion of our time that is more precious 
than gold, to deck and adorn these bodies of clay, whose existence is limited 
by an Almighty power to a very short span, even at the longest, and uncer- 
tainty is indelibly stamped on all created things, as it regards any human 
control over them, and what liberty has beeu granted us by the Great Su- 
preme, thus to trifle with the mercies and the favors of heaven % 

When the only intellectual being in the order of creation that inhabits the 
earth, in the abuse of its free agency, steps out from under the Divine govern- 
ment, and sways the sceptre of independence over all the powers infinite wis- 
dom has seen fit to exercise to bring into subjection the will of his creature 
man, and ranging the flowery fields of imagination in pursuit of the pleasures 
of earth, for the purpose of bringing into requisition all the productions, the 
inventive genius of man has contrived to gratify the vanity and the pride of 
man ; for in his diversion and amusement he admits of no control, but music 
of all kinds, sacred or profane, he seems to consider his inalienable right, to be 
used on all dccasions as may suit his own convenience, without any regard or 
accountability to God or man. In the formation of our being these propen- 
sities form a part, and a very important part of our existence, through which 
the temptations to aspire after forbidden fruit, has been experienced in the 
dawn of man's existence on earth, and through every generation down to the 
present time. The constitutionality of the organs of animal existence, appear 
to be the same now as they were nearly six thousand years ago, and we have 
no more right of access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil than 
Adam had in paradise. 

The pernicious examples of a large portion of the race, that have inter- 
vened, in the various ages that are past, in the indulgence of forbidden plea- 
sure, is not a sufficient excuse for us. 

If in the profession of Christianity amongst the various denominations, there 
apparently exists a nominal belief in the reality of the christian religion, with 
a correspondent faith, that is not sufficient to elevate the soul above the de- 
sires of sensual delight, and a boundless encouragement in the energetic pur- 
suit of the science of the beautiful ; where, let me respectfully inquire, does 
the mass of professing christians find any justification for this departure from 
the simplicity of the immediate followers of the founder of a religion that 
stands not in the wisdom of man but in the power of God. 

And what examples have we in the lives of the Apostles and primitive be- 
lievers in genuine Christianity, for the practice of music, or the occupation of 
one half our time in the acquisition of toys and vanities to deck, adorn, and 
beautify almost every material in the catalogue for the outfit, equipage, and 
paraphernalia of the establishment of the household from the palace to the 
toilet? The lives of the most exemplary christians recorded in history, as well as 
those of our own time, bear ample testimony against the practice of music, 
and the vanities and gay attire of an admiring world that lieth in wickedness. 

I could array a host of witnesses in favor of the total abandonment of -all 
the excrescences of human pride, whose characters for veracity are unim- 
peachable, and whose lives bore irresistible evidence to the reality, and ex- 
perimental knowledge of the religion they professed, but I have neither time 
nor space to occupy in recording all their names. I will mention a few : 

Thomas A'Kempis, William Law, George Fox, William Penn, Elias 
Hicks, Edward Hicks, John Comly, and a host of others, whom I trust did 
not approve of music, and would not have permitted a piano forte to occupy 



75 

a portion of their dwellings, or would have encouraged the practice of any 
other kind of music, as being incompatible with the christian religion, and 
detrimental to the better interests of mankind. To delight in music is an 
evidence of a vacant mind, and to be pleased with gay attire, and the unne- 
cessary ornaments on houses and furniture, displays a childish weakness, that 
could only be excused in our infantile years. 

I will quote a few iines from Thomas A'Kempis " Behold, the care of 
food and raiment, which it is difficult to separate from vain decoration, and 
the indulgence of the sensual appetite is grievous and burthensome to a fer- 
vent spirit ! Grant me grace, therefore, to use all things pertaining to the 
body with moderation : and not anxiously to desire the possession of them, 
nor bitterly lament the want. To cast all away, the law of nature does not 
permit ; for nature must be sustained ; but to desire superfluity, and that 
which ministers to delight more than to use, thy holy law forbids, lest the 
flesh should grow insolent, and rebel against the spirit. In all these difficult 
and dangerous paths, let thy wisdom and power govern and direct me, that I 
may not deviate to the right hand nor to the left !" I have heretofore re- 
marked that was it not for the bias of education and example, and the power 
of tradition operating on the human mind, there might be a more rational 
ground of hope, for an entire reformation in the exterior of the whole cata- 
logue of an outfit, appertaining to the household amongst the more opulent 
in civilized life : As it is said that 

" Education forms the common mind, 
Just a9 the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'' 

Nevertheless I shall contend that the power of religion, passively opera- 
ting upon the soul, is sufficient to redeem it from all iniquity, and to purify 
the affections from all contaminations of inordinate desire, and raise them a- 
bove the level of the brute, that is formed exclusively for sensual enjoyment, 
and designed for the comfort and support of intellectual existence. Man the 
most noble being in the visible creation, stands on an elevation above all 
animal existence, in his relation to God, while in the innocent state in which 
he was created, and is raised in the scale of being in exact ratio to his obedi- 
ence to the light within ; and as he advances in religious experience, the 
desires for the gratification in sensual delights and the vanities of time, gradu- 
ally diminish until he loses all relish for them, and the fulfilment of the duties 
of his station, absorb all the powers of body, soul and spirit, and his daily 
concern is that he may fill up the measure of his days in usefulness 
amongst his fellow men, as he can add nothing to the aggregate of infinity. 

Man having arrived at the summit of his usefulness is qualified to fill the 
most importaht stations in the church, his example and precept in religious 
society are influential in regulating the affairs of the church, as no society of 
professing christians, are all perfect, there remains an open door for the exer- 
cise of those talents, which having been polished and improved in the school 
of Christ, are prepared to act in every emergency, either in the prevention of 
such innovations in discipline or practice, as are detrimental to the prosperity 
and advancement of society in pure and undefiled religion, as well as the en- 
couragement of those devoted servants of the most high engaged in the pro- 
mulgation of the Gospel of Christ. 

Having thus elevated the standard of righteousness above all sensual de- 
lights, we will bid adieu to music and diversion and the vanities of fashion- 
able life. 

Amelia Opie's farewell to music, is so appropriate I copy it entire, 



76 

I have loved thee, Music, have tasted thy powers, 

And have praised thy sweet song that has robbed ine of hours ; 

I have said thou wouldst lull every feeling of strife, 

And counted thee one of the blessings of fife. 

I have thought that thy anthems ol holy delight, 

Brought the dawnings of day, mid the shadows of night ; 

That the spirit oppressed with unspeakable grief, 

Could at least find one refuge, one certain relief. 

And thou lily white wand, and thou rose-bedecked thorn, 

Thou betrayest the heart, and thou leaVst it to mourn, 

For thou hast not one comfort, one boon to bestow ; 

From thy high mountain's anthems what deep meanings flow. 

Then I'll leave thee, I'll shun thee, I'll bid thee farewell, 

Nor shall reason or conscience hence forward rebel ; 

Thou shalt rob me no more of sweet silence or rest, 

For I've proved thee a trap, a seducer at best. 

Yes, thou spirit of darkness transformed into light, 

Thou voluptuous form clad in raiment of white, 

It is thine when our passions seemed conquered and fled, 

But to raise up and cherish the evils we dread. 

Then go thou where vice haunts the thoughtless and gay, 

Where the midnight of folly sends reason away, 

Where the mind draws its sorrows, its pleasures from thence, 

And the heart pants alone for the raptures of sense. 

But 0, enter thou not where devotion has trod, 

To beguile the poor soul from its duty to God : 

For the well-springs of Me, and the bread of the day, 

It is thine not to give but to barter away. 

Then may each son of folly, each daughter of care, 

Hear the whispers that bids them reflect and beware; 

And e'er sin shall seduce them from peace and from rest, 

Fly the arrow whose point would envenom their breast — 

For whilst sin, open sin, leads its thousands astray, 

Tens of thousands are borne by false pleasure away ; 

Let the Christian in heart, then, redeemed and set free, 

Never dare to return, O vain Music, to thee. 

I proposed to offer a few remarks on the inequality of the conditions of 
men, as it regards the possession of property ; this inequality appears to be 
fearfully on the increase, having its origin in the free agency of the powers of 
intellectual existence, overleaping the bounds prescribed in the limitations 
infinite wisdom has displayed in that perfect pattern of righteousness, and in 
the holy examples of the wise and the good in the various ages that have in- 
tervened since the beginning of creation to the present time ; refusing to be 
guided by that unerring spirit that never leads astray, but continually re- 
mains a bright and shining light in the centre of the soul, to direct our steps 
through those intricate paths, to the natural understanding, in our journey 
through the wilderness of temptations appointed us by probation under the 
dispensations of an all-wise providence to prepare us for a happiness that is 
enduring. 

We cannot for amoment'suppose that infinite wisdom in planning the abodes 
of men, has surrounded them with insurmountable obstacles to a final ajust- 
men of our temporal concerns to the righteous requisitions of his will. 

Notwithstanding we may plead that in our free agency we have liberty to 
engross the treasures of earth, without stint or limitation, so long as we" do 
not interfere with the legal rights of our fellow probationers, and if by dint 
of our perseverance and industry, we are permitted to accumulate an 
abundance of the good things of this life, they will not prove blessings to us, 
unless we use them in moderation with a due regard to temperance in all 
things ; and the surplus is at the disposal of providence. 

Under a firm belief in an over-ruling providence, I am not disposed to split 
hairs in the establishment of a boundary line, that supports an equilibrium 



77 

between the power that regulates the universe, or planetary system, and the 
free agency of an. immoral spirit; I acknowledge the free agency complete in 
the formation of man, yet an almighty power regulates the final destiny of his 
disobedient children, having a comprehensive or at least infinite knowledge 
of the secret purposes and intentions of the soul, and this free agency of 
choice is our privilege, so long as there is any hope of our salvation, but if 
our hearts become hardened, and the day of our visitation is over, the Al- 
mighty may use us for purposes of his own, during our continuance on earth. 

The unequal distribution of the individual wealth of the nations of Europe 
is much greater than in the United States, but the people of this country are 
aproaching with rapid strides towards the same state of things. The pro- 
pensity for gain and the energy of pursuit in the people of America is equal 
in my humble opinion to any on the globe, hence the danger of increasing 
the aristocracy of wealth, and its pernicious influence over the moral and re- 
ligious condition of society, augmenting the degradation and wretchedness of 
the poorer classes. Since mankind are almost universally prone to worship 
at the shrine of mammon, and are training up their children to worship the 
Gods of silver and gold ; and the public mind appears to be intoxicated with 
an inordinate thirst of gain, and its influence is coextensive with civilization. 
It would appear that under the serious contemplation of such a state of things, 
that if ten righteous men could be found that would frame a bill for the sup- 
pression of this worldly spirit, before we are swallowed up in this whirlpool 
that is opening wide its voracious jaws as eager for the prey. 

Injustice and oppression are frequently the handmaids in this unrighteous 
pursuit of gain, the motive being impure, as the channel through which it 
flows, consequently it can never produce real satisfaction in the enjoyment, or 
unalloyed peace in the possession. I feel no disposition to fetter the energies 
of man in the pursuit of honest industry, in all the useful occupations of life. 

Although my faith and hope are no larger than the aggregate of two grains 
of mustard seed in the probability that any argument of mine will be ef- 
fective or operate sufficiently on the public sentiment to change the present 
condition of things in relation to this unequal division of property ; neverthe- 
less it is my intention to express an opinion and briefly explain my views, and 
if not presuming too much for my limited experience and observation would 
propose a remedy for a portion of the evils and inconveniences of this de- 
plorable inequality amongst mankind. In my remarks on the state of a world 
of intelligent beings, and the condition of society, more especially in civilized 
life, I have not entered into the consideration of the political affairs of the 
nation ; its government and laws ; feeling myself incompetent to analyze 
them, but as the unequal possession of the property of a nation or a state, is 
so interwoven with the subject under consideration, and as the laws are pre- 
sumed to be founded on justice, and the equal rights of man. A thorough 
examination of them had I the ability and leisure, to point out the defects in 
the administration of justice throughout the whole code operative at the 
present day, would require volumes to explain wherein they operate justly 
or unjustly. I shall content myself with simply alluding to such as bear up- 
on the subjects on which I have attempted to treat. Although the people of 
the United States are not subject to a law of primogeniture I do not consider 
our laws on the distribution or division of the estates of the deceased, op- 
erates justly in all cases, and a revision of them, would undoubtedly be ad- 
vantageous to the community, especially if entrusted to just and upright men 
fully competent to frame them, and if a clause was appended that should 
make it obligatory on every parent to bequeath equal justice to his or her 
children, and no difference should be allowed in the will, as there is none 
without any, it is a poor rule that will not work both ways. 



78 

If the parent wishes to make a difference in the division of his property 
amongst his children, let him do it in his lifetime, and with a perfect under- 
standing amongst the heirs, as to the justice or propriety of an unequal divi- 
sion, so that an amicable adjustment might be effected before a separation 
takes place, and mankind would be relieved from an unjust and oppressive 
law, and many heart-burnings would be spared, and those bitter fruits of envy 
and jealousy produced by this unfeeling and cruel conduct towards their own 
flesh and blood, would be experienced no longer. 

What authority have we from the records of the wise and the good, to 
justify the execution of an unjust, unequal and unrighteous will. The most 
unjust will tbat could be made is considered equally sacred in the eye of the 
law as the most just, hence the propriety of its entire abrogation — let the 
voice of the people wipe the stain from the statute book. 

Some may argue that a man has a right to give his property to whom he 
pleases, without any regard to justice or the sacred rights of kindred and 
friends ; if we allow him this right, let us confine him to the distribution of 
his property with his own hands, and not leave the execution of an unjust act 
for the performance of others. 

The only inquiry or proof of the sanity of the individual is all that is 
necessary to the faithful execution of a will however unjust. Having wit- 
nessed the operation and effects of unjust wills, and the evils they produce, I 
have been almost ready to conclude that it would be better not to make any, 
and let the combined wisdom of our greatest and best men revise the laws 
and bring them as near perfection as the finite capacities of a rational being 
can accomplish, and dispense with wills altogether. 

Since it is improbable that wills will be entirely dispensed with during the 
existence of the present generation, I should approve of the passage of a law, 
suggested by Dymond, an eminent English writer, on the subject of the 
equalization of property, that no individual shall bequeath over a certain 
amount, which the combined wisdom of the legislature should determine, that 
this prodigious accumulation might be partially checked. It may be said 
that this would abridge the inalienable rights of man, and encroach upon his 
free agency. I readily admit that it would introduce the inquiry, how far the 
limits of our jurisprudence may extend without interfering with the sacred 
rights of individuals. Yet there is another side to this question, or, in other 
words, a new question arises as to how far it would be right to limit juris- 
diction over the actions of men, as it is oftentimes a nice point to decide 
whether the act is criminal or only unjust. There must be a dividing line 
that shall preserve an equilibrium between what is absolutely criminal or 
extremely unjust. 

Although it is acknowledged that force is not analogous to the principles 
of Christianity, yet I hold that good men are competent to frame laws that 
would operate more equally, that would be sufficiently compulsory towards 
equalizing the conditions of men, without any abridgement of those privileges 
necessary to the well-being of society. 

An important point would be gained, even if we could not force people to 
be just in principle, and upright in heart, if we could prevent them from act- 
ing unjustly, so that the equal rights of mankind might be maintained. 

When we contemplate the various conditions of men, simply as it regards 
their ability or power to accumulate wealth, and when we see one man begin 
the world with nothing, another may have hundreds of thousands, and the 
power to monopolize the good things of this life, is given him by birthright, 
nevertheless, there are those who from small beginnings rise to opulence, 
the contrast in the conditions of men is increasing to a frightful degree, both 
in city and country, and a monopolizing spirit keeps pace with the power 



79 

that wealth affords, and an aristocracy of wealth is rapidly encroaching upon 
the just rights and liberties of the poorer classes. I shall contend that, al- 
though God permits, he does not approbate the present state of things. Let 
us contrast the wealth of the Rothchilds with an equal division of the 
wealth of the world amongst its inhabitants, and methinks we should cut a 
sorry figure amidst the fashionable circles of the present day, and this I con- 
sider of but little importance in comparison of the evils that are the natural 
consequence, or that grow out of this immense monopoly. The colossal 
power of one hundred millions drawing interest at the legal rate of 7 per cent, 
is frightful. How many such would it take to buy the whole world and make 
slaves of ninety-nine hundredths of the people. 

I freely acknowledge that the poor in this country are liberally provided 
for, both by public and private benefactions, which argues favorably for the 
most noble trait in the christian character, and a sound state of the public 
mind in regard to suffering humanity ; nevertheless, if some method could be 
devised that would prevent, to a certain extent, the necessity of relieving the 
wants of the poor, or, in other words, encourage industry by suitable re- 
wards for labor. If the poor females in the city of New- York could obtain 
remunerating prices for their labor, what a vast amount J of suffering would be 
removed, and it would be well to consider the propriety of increasing their 
wages, or allow remunerating prices for labor ; or, if the employers can make 
more money by using sewing machines, and leaving the poor woman idle, it 
becomes necessary to increase the taxes for their support, and still a large 
deficiency has to be contributed by public and private charity. The greatest 
public benefactor enlarges the sphere of remunerative industry for the labor- 
ing elasses by every means in his power. In the present state of mankind 
it would really seem that the invention of labor-saving machines were a curse 
to the country, yet I believe that if a proper use was made of them, tbey 
would prove a blessing ; as it was never intended that the rich should grind 
the faces of the poor, in order to furnish them with the luxuries of life, and 
to build up lordly establishments to stand as monuments of their pride ; these 
labor-saving machines in the hands of unprincipled and selfish men who 
would monopolize every thing within their power, are dangerous to the liber- 
ties of the poor, and may be compared to leeches sucking their very life blood. 
If all the labor-saving machines were owned or controlled by christians, the 
world would be redeemed from a heavy load of oppression, and the poor 
would sing for joy on the banks of deliverance. 

I am almost ready to desire that infinite wisdom might see meet to draw a 
little tighter on the cords of his free agency over the intellectual powers of 
man for the protection of the just rights of the poor and needy. 

My remarks on the various conditions of men in regard to the possession 
or acquisition of property, is predicated on the supposition that all are tem- 
perate and moral. 

I have not attempted to pourtray the vast amount of suffering caused by 
intemperance and immorality, neither have I time to enter into a proper con- 
sideration, or at least examination, of the terrible effects of both, more par- 
ticularly on the laboring classes, and indigent portion of the community, re- 
ducing them to poverty and wretchedness both- in Europe and America, and 
very many of them become a burden to the State. 

According to the present statistics of pauperism, transmitted by the Sec- 
retary of State of the State of New York, it is alarmingly on the increase 
in this Sate, owing to the vast emigration of paupers and criminals from the 
old world, that fill our poor-houses and prisons, increasing the taxes for their 
support to a fearful extent, and can there be a reasonable doubt but that the 
governments of the old world are in fault in this matter, in shipping the fag 



80 

ends of creation to our shores, to relieve themselves of a burden which 
justly belongs to them.? I think not. The report considers that the 
unchecked migration of foreigners, is the chief cause of the increase in pau- 
perism, and urges that, while it is the duty of the State to take care of its own 
poor, it is a question whether New York should be made the poor-house of 
Europe, or be taxed to lighten the taxation in foreign countries 1 I consider 
it highly important that some steps should be taken by the legislature of this 
State as well as by Congress to remedy the evils which we endure, by 
amending existing laws, or make new ones to reach the case. 

It does of course require a nice discrimination between the poor and the 
actual pauper that requires immediate assistance, so that we do not refuse an 
asylum to the poor oppressed working classes of Europe, and stand in our 
own light, by preventing those to land who would not only better their own 
condition but prove advantageous to us. In thus endeavoring to adjust and 
to regulate the moving masses of human beings in their migration from a 
land of despotism and oppression, to the free States of this Union, requires 
the skill of the Philanthropist to preserve them from harm, after landing on 
our shores, and to aid them on their journey to the land of promise ; our 
sympathies are called into requisition, in order to alleviate their sufferings 
endured in their transit to tbeir new abodes ; and even under all these in- 
conveniences, humanity is diminishing its load of wretchedness and misery. 
In the ordering of Providence a refuge has been provided for millions of our 
oppressed and persecuted fellow beings, that the woes of suffering humanity 
may be finally extinguished in the regions of despotism. 



SL A VEE Y. 

I had not intended to have written a word on the subject of slavery, not 
because I do not abhor the system perhaps as much as any other man, but 
because more able writers have written volumes on the subject, and there is 
nothing new to write about, the horrors of the system have been so frequently 
portrayed by abler pens than mine; therefore I shall content myself with a 
few remarks in relation to its bearing or influence on the body politic. The 
very idea of perpetual slavery shocks every feeling of humanity, and the 
base attempt to extend it over territory now free caps the climax of wicked- 
ness, and the author at abettor of a scheme so infernal, deserves to be driven 
from the society of those who profess a belief in the christian religion. 

I am no politician, I take no part in politics, yet feeling a deep interest in 
the prosperity and the well-being of our beloved country, I cannot observe 
with indifference the agitation on the subject of slavery, not only in the 
councils of the nation, but throughout the length and breadth of the land, and 
although portentous, it is devoutly to be hoped that it may not end in a 
deadly and conflicting strife, that shall rend asunder the union of these States, 
yet a very solemn and important inquiry arises, as to how far the free States 
shall go, in the defence of the just and equal rights of man, and in the resist- 
ance to the encroachments of the slave power by the president and his cabi- 
net, and their minions of the slave oligarchy, in the extension of this abomin- 
able system over the Territories of the Union, and in the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, with the lights'of civilization blazing around us, and the 
pompous boast of the advancement of the race, under the scrutinizing gaze of 
the governments and people of the whole earth ; in short, in the very face of 
God Almighty. A bold attempt is made to extend the limits of slavery, and 
perpetuate the abominable system, increasing the slave power in the councils 
of the nation interminably. I say again, how far shall the free States go in 
resisting the extension of the most oppressive system of degradation and 
misery the world has ever witnessed. I am a member of the Society of, 



81 

Friends, and take no part in war, and should regret to encourage a spirit of 
war in the brotherhood of the race, yet perhaps I may be allowed to say, that 
if resistance unto blood, (was ever justifiable since the introduction of Chris- 
tianity,) by those who have not adopted the principles of non-resistance and 
are not completely initiated into the gospel state, and honestly and sincerely 
believe that war is right in defence of the liberties of the people, here is a 
case, if ever there was one, that would seem to justify resistance unto blood, 
especially if a voluntary sacrifice of life and property was freely offered to 
preserve and extend the liberties of mankind, I rejoice to perceive the spirit 
of freedom reviving in the hearts of the people of the free States, and al- 
though I take no active part in the affairs of government, neither mingle with 
any political party, even in these stirring and eventful times, believing my 
path of duty is confined within the limits of christian philanthropy, never- 
theless, I hope to be preserved from a spirit of bigotry towards any of the 
brotherhood of the race, and I can readily believe that a large majority of 
the American people are in favor of confining slavery within its present 
limits, and if the selfish principle of looking to the spoils of office did not 
predominate over the better feelings of their judgment, the free States would 
soon gain the ascendency in the administration of the general government. 
The platform adopted by the republicans approaches nearer the standard of 
the equal rights of the people, and the views of the founders of this great 
Republic, as administered by Washington and Jefferson, and it is devoutly 
to be wished that they may succeed in re-establishing those ancient land- 
marks of genuine republicanism, and subvert the supremacy of the slave 
power, and by the blessing and approbation of Providence, regain those an- 
cient liberties bequeathed by the founders of a government, based on the 
equal rights of man, and transmit them as a precious legacy to our children, 
with a well-grounded hope, that a double portion of the spirit of the Fathers 
may rest upon them, so that being imbued with the love of liberty, their 
united influence will finally prevail, until it becomes established over the en- 
tire Continent of America. 



RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN THE VICINITY OF THE 
CITY OF NEW-YORK FOR THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

When we contrast the present state of society with the primitive simplicity 
that existed fifty years ago, those of us that have witnessed the gradual in- 
crease in the expenses of living throughout all the ramifications of the house- 
hold, from the toilet through all departments of dress and equipage required 
in the present day, as necessary appendages, in order to move in the most 
respectable, or perhaps, rather in the most fashionable circles. I say, all 
that have witnessed the changes that have taken place in the last fifty years, 
will do well to pause for a moment and contemplate what would likely be the 
condition of society at the expiration of another half contury, if the increase 
of expenditure and the manner and style of living should continue to cor- 
respond. 

Allow me to say, that I consider the prospect alarming, and that the best 
interests of society are suffering in the present day to that extreme, which 
causes the reflective mind to ponder on the scenes that pass in review before 
him, and prompt him to warn all classes and ranks of society of the danger 
that awaits them in pursuing with avidity after the wealth and its attendant 
vanities and pleasures of life. I call upon the rich and all in affluent circum- 
stances, and more especially those who have witnessed the prevalence and 
increase of pride and extravagance for the last fifty years, to endeavor both 
by example and precept to arrest the onward march of arrogance and useless 



82 

expenditure. We have but one short life to live, a probationary state of ex- 
istence is allowed us for a very brief period to prepare for an eternal exist- 
ence in the world to come. What a pity — what a great mistake that we at- 
tempt to make our heaven in the enjoyment and participation of the things 
of earth ; seeking the gratification of our animal appetites and passions. I 
consider the lowest order or state of intellectual existence, is where the 
temptations come through the animal propensities ; in this state our reason is 
all that elevates us above the brute, but when we are tempted through the 
spiritual faculties to aspire after the honors and glory of this world, or to 
hoard up the treasures of earth beyond our reasonable wants, so that our de- 
sires are never satisfied, (a proof of the immortality of the soul,) these temp- 
tations operating through the spiritual perceptions, are a part and parcel of 
our being, that constitute our probation and trial, and equally necessary they 
should be kept in subjection, as the animal appetites, although of a higher 
order, and more difficult to overcome. If, when placed upon a pinnacle or 
in a situation where the honors and glory of this world are offered to us, we 
can adopt the language, " get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not 
the things that be of God," then most assuredly the angels will come and 
minister unto us. 

I do not consider a few remarks on the constituent propensities of a human 
being, as any digression from the subject under consideration, examination or 
elucidation, as it is through these temptations that we are drawn and enticed 
away from the path of rectitude, which is so clearly pointed out to us, by the 
same light that enlighteneth every man coming into the world. 

Having at all times a perfect understanding of the way in which we ought 
to walk, we are left without excuse, when we make use of our free agency in 
stepping out from under the Divine government ; we run into the various ex- 
tremes which the customs and fashions of the day have introduced which are 
infectious and influential through all ranks of society, both in church and state, 
so that but few can be found, who are willing to " let their moderation ap- 
pear unto all men." 

The very large parties at private dwellings, where music and dancing 
constitute a part of the entertainment are on the increase, and the extrava- 
gance displayed on these occasions is producing incalculable injury to the 
youthful portion of society. Fifty years ago music and dancing parties or 
balls were almost entirely confined to public houses, and the members of 
the society of friends, were seldom known to attend them, their influence on 
the better portion of society, were considered extremely pernicious, and per- 
haps I might say rather degrading to all in attendance, (at least it so ap- 
peared to me) ; if I am not mistaken the most refined portion of society, 
generally did not make a practice of attending these balls, they considered 
the practice calculated to tarnish their reputation. Let me ask where we 
shall look for the most refined portion of society in these latter days, or who 
shall show us any good, if the highest processors of religion are the leaders in 
examples. of extravagance and folly ; as one extreme begets another and they 
increase in a geometrical ratio, to the end of the chapter, each striving to 
excel his neighbor in the vastness of the entertainment in numbers and ex- 
penditure. The temptations to those who are invited to these unbounded 
entertainments, to appear in the gayest apparel that the tailor, dressmaker 
and milliner can furnish, is another of the evils incident thereto. The prox- 
imity to a great city has its advantages and disadvantages, the customs of 
city life are introduced into the country, and the temptation to pattern after 
our more wealthy citizens has increased the expenses of living to an alarm- 
ing extent, and the education of our children, more particularly the daughters, 
is becoming a serious evil ; those that have the means seem disposed to 



83 

educate them in the most fashionable branches of learning, including music 
and dancing, without sufficient instruction in household affairs ; bringing them 
up in idleness, all useful labor being considered vulgar ; some little fancy 
work exquisitely fine, occupies a portion of their leisure hours, the remaining 
portion is probably filled up with novel reading, producing a languor and 
listlessness in their habits which they will probably find difficult to overcome 
in after life, when ttie cares that devolve upon them, are pressing with al- 
most irrisistible force on the energies of the soul. 

I hope I shall not be understood as discouraging education, especially all 
the branches of useful learning. I consider we are at liberty to search after 
all useful knowledge to the end of the chapter. We should have an eye, or 
take into consideration their pursuits in life, and be governed accordingly. I 
do not presume to dictate any parent in the course he should pursue in the 
education of his children ; I only wish to drop a caution, that in training them 
up, we do not neglect to give the preference to that kind of learning that can 
the most readily be applied to all the most useful occupations of life : If a 
collegiate education is necessary to fit either a son or a daughter for any 
profession or business they may choose to follow, I shall not object. 

It is highly important that parents should by example and precept, endeav- 
or to guard all the avenues that lead to dissipation and extravagance. 

The restraints and ceremonies incident to fashionable life, absorb so large 
a portion of time, where the vanities of this world are the all-engrossing 
object, making slaves of its votaries, who are bound in a chain of formalities 
and ceremonies which it is difficult to sever. The wise and the good of every 
age, have found their consolation in choosing the straight and narrow way 
that leadeth unto life, for it must be acknowledged that a fashionable life is 
included in the broad way that leadeth down to the chambers of death. 

I am a birthright member of the Society of Friends, and have arrived at 
the age of three-score and four years, consequently have had an opportunity 
of witnessing the effects of its discipline, in the regulation of the affairs of the 
church, as well as the immediate revelation of the spirit of God on the minds 
of his favored servants and ministers. I think I can say without boasting, 
that I have indubitable evidence, that the principles and doctrines that have 
been given to this society to bear to the world, are of a heavenly origin; and 
are justly entitled to a prominence over all others, notwithstanding the de- 
declension of many of its members from the purity of those principles and 
doctrines, which the more faithful portion of society have so long maintained. 
While solemnly reflecting on the importance of the subject, I feel constrained, 
I hope in that love that proceeds from a source that is unbounded, to call 
upon the youth of both sexes, members of the Society of Friends, and more 
especially those that are entering upon the stage of active life, and assuming 
a responsibility in the general concerns which consequently devolve upon all 
mankind, or at least all those included in civilized society. Let me repeat, 
I feel constrained to call upon you in this day of sorrowful declension from 
•those principles and testimonies which were so faithfully borne by many of 
our predecessors in ages that are past. 

I am well aware that there are many temptations calculated to draw you 
aside from the paths of rectitude and virtue, yet there is a power that is able 
to preserve you with an implicit faith and confidence in it. You no doubt 
desire and expect to fill honorable and useful stations in society, in the gen- 
eral community in which you mingle. Let me .feelingly and respectfully in- 
quire of you, what there is in your prospects for the future so well calculated 
to elevate your standing in society, and to dignify your characters, as a faith- 
ful adherence to the principles and doctrines of the Society of Friends. 

Whatever may be the standing of any professed minister of the gospel, it 



84 

becomes necessary for us to pass judgment upon his communication before it 
can profit us, and we shall not be edified by any ministry that our unbiased 
judgment cannot approve, and I have confidence in believing that many of 
our young friends are as capable of judging when a ministry proceeds from 
right authority, as some who are older ; the spirit of discernment does not 
always rest on the aged ; it is to the faithful the gifts of the Spirit are con- 
ferred, to those who do not permit the concerns of this world to have the as- 
cendancy in the mind, and engross all the affections, but where those heavenly 
dispositions are in the ascendancy and preponderate in the soul, it is these 
who are capable of judging of what is gospel and what is not. I wish to 
maintain those great and fundamental principles of righteousness founded on 
the revelation of the will of God to man, the immediate inspiration of the 
spirit of Jehovah upon each of our spirits, which is always given as a light 
to enlighten every man Coming into the world; this light is universal through- 
out the length and breadth of intellectual existence, and is the only test that 
is given us to try the spirits by, shining upon the rational understanding, il- 
luminating all the powers of the soul. We are required to bring not only our 
own deeds to the light, but must pass judgment upon the lives of others, and 
as we cannot gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, neither can we expect 
to be edified by a ministry, that has its origin in the wisdom and power of 
the natural understanding. The gospel being the power of God unto salva- 
tion to all who believe, the immediate operation of the Divine Spirit upon the 
intellectual and spiritual faculties of the soul. 

I hold that no man who has not received a commission from divine authori- 
ty can preach the gospel, although he may be possessed of the most splendid 
abilities, and his attainments in learning and theological acquirements may be 
unequaled, as the things of God can only be known by the Spirit of God. 

Hence, a ministry resting on no other foundation than the acquirements of 
the natural understanding can be of no avail in promulgating the great cause 
of universal righteousness amongst men, (as a stream cannot rise higher than 
its fountain,) its origin is antichrist, and its influence and tendency is to build 
up a false church. 

Notwithstanding I have been contrasting the present state of society with 
its condition fifty years since, and have expressed my views on that subject, 
the remainder of what I may communicate will not be strictly under that 
head, yet as my writings are of a miscellaneous character, I hope to be excused 
for whatever digression I may make, hoping that what I may communicate 
may in some small degree be calculated to advance the cause of universal 
righteousness. 

Religion being the only foundation on which we can safely build our hopes 
of happiness, either in time or eternity ; being fixed in a state of probation 
and trial, good and evil being set before us, and as free agents we have the 
power of choice ; we find a rule of faith and practice established in the soul ; 
we also discover that in our constitution there exists dispositions and propen- 
sities which belong to our common nature, a part and parcel of our very 
being, which in the exercise of our free agency, we are at liberty to indulge 
until nature is satisfied — that is our nature in its first estate — pure innocency, 
free from all defilement ; as we are at liberty to partake of all the trees of- the 
garden save one, and that is the tree of life, guarded by a flaming sword, 
turning every way to prevent the possibility of our obtaining any spiritual 
food by the exercise of all the powers of the natural understanding ; as God 
has reserved to himself the privilege of directing us in the concerns of the 
spiritual life, having furnished us with a light or rule of faith and practice, 
in the secret of the soul, which constitutes our accountability. In this are 
contained all the issues of a religious life ; a bright and shining light as a wit- 



85 

ness for God ever present with us ; approving or reproving us in accordance 
with our conduct in the sight of heaven. I feel concerned for the cause of 
righteousness, and that genuine Christianity may increase amongst men, and 
that the gospel of Christ may be preached in the demonstration of the Spirit 
and with power, without the necessity of a dependence on scholastic learn- 
ing. When I contemplate the state of the professed christian churches in 
regard to the ministry supported and approved by them, my heart is sick, 
my soul is pained, from an apprehension that a very small proportion of the 
ministers, so-called, have received any commission from Divine authority to 
preach the gospel, and those who have not, are not qualified to fill the stations 
they occupy. 

From the testimony of the immediate followers of the founder of the 
christian religion, we have abundant evidence, that the wisdom of man, 
acquired or improved by the exercise of tke natural understanding, was not 
a sufficient qualification to preach the gospel. The enticing words of man's 
wisdom were declared to be incompetent (in that day) to reach the just wit- 
ness for God in the secret of the soul, and it remains to be so down to the 
present time. Notwithstanding the Society of Friends hold this as a funda- 
mental principle of the religion they profess, I have to acknowledge that 
unfaithfulness to the principles, has lowered down the standard of faith, with 
many of us, so that a spurious ministry is often tolerated, and much confusion 
and embarrassment exists in the society in consequence thereof. Friends 
never hire ministers to preach, those that presume to preach without being 
qualified, and divinely authorized, cannot reasonably look for any higher re- 
ward than the applause of men, and many do not receive even that, but are a 
by-word and a reproach to the society, and are stumbling blocks to those who 
are inquiring the way to Zion. In the weak and degenerate state of professing 
Christendom throughout the world, I do not hesitate to assert that the aoproval 
or ordination of ministers cannot be relied on as having the sanction of Divine 
authority, therefore, in order to discriminate it is essential that we are in 
possession of a spirit of discernmo«t. 

The principles of the Society of Friends, in their primitive purity, in re- 
gard to the ministry, stand out in bold relief before the professing christian 
churches, in maintaining the absolute necessity of a dependence on immediate 
inspiration to enable them to preach the gospel, hence, I shall contend that 
the views and requirements held as essential in the promulgation of the gospel 
are in accordance with the Apostolic churches, and consequently may be 
justly considered as having the pre-eminence in the promotion of the great 
work of the reformation for near two hundred years ; in proof of my assertion, 
allow me to quote Governor Livingston of New-Jersey, American Museum, 
vol. viii., page 255 : " As to my own part, I doubt not that the gospel may 
be preached without that immense . apparatus of human erudition, an expen- 
sive education, and libraries of theological books — an apparatus that hath 
but too often proved the means of inflating with literary pride, and termin- 
ated in 'that wisdom by which the world knew not God;' while it arrogant- 
ly despised as f the foolishness of preaching,' that by which ' it pleased God to 
save them that believe.' 

" Indeed, I know it may, because I know it has been, and still is. The 
Apostles had not this kind of preparation ; excepting St. Paul, they were all 
illiterate fishermen and mechanics ; and George Fox alone has, without hu- 
man learning, done more towards the restoration of real, unadulterated Chris- 
tianity, and the extirpation of priestscraft, superstition, and ridiculous un- 
availing rites and ceremonies, than any other reformer in Protestant Chris- 
tendom has with it. But the Apostles and primitive evangelists were, you 
say, in preaching the gospel, illuminated and directed by the Holy Spirit, 



86 

and therefore, wanted not the assistance of systematical codes and folio 
volumes of cabalisistical criticism. They were so ; and who dare, in modern 
times, or at any time, preach that same gospel without the like illumination 
and direction. If without it he pretends to preach any gospel, I am sure it- 
would be a gospel of his own making, or that of his scholastic preceptors." 

If conclusive evidence has been adduced to prove that the gospel cannot 
be preached without the seal of Divine authority, how shall we reconcile the 
practice of the mass of professing christians with the plain principles of the 
religion of Jesus Christ and his immediate followers, as we find it recorded 
by Divine authority for the benefit of succeeding generations, wherever and 
whenever the light of Divine revelation opens them to the understandings of 
the people. 

What hope is there of aspiring to a knowledge of God or of Divine things, 
that accompany salvation, wheref the mind is pursuing after the things of this 
world with unceasing avidity ? When will the people learn wisdom and 
righteousness, and cease to build our hopes of happiness upon the treasures 
of earth, upon any thing that is material ? When will the honors and glory 
of this world be eclipsed by the brightness of the luminary of God s power 
shining on the faculties of the soul, illuminating the understanding to perceive 
that the consolations derived from the honors and glory of this world, with all 
the vanities of time, are altogether insufficient to satisfy an immortal mind. 

It has been proved that the natural understanding of man, improved by 
scientific research, with all its powers, cannot build a tower that shall reach 
to heaven, or in other words, can never enter the kingdom by stratagem, as 
the flaming sword turns every way to defend that which is holy. 

Whatever may be the state of society (by which we are surrounded) with 
regard to morals or religion, it is essential, even absolutely necessary, that 
we give heed to the admonitions of conscience in order to become acquainted 
with God, so that we can the more clearly understand the pointings of duty. 

In the corrupt state of the church it behooves us to look well to our own 
standing : " know thyself, enough for man to know," so that becoming per- 
fectly acquainted with ourselves, understanding our true position in the soci- 
ety in which we mingle, we are then prepared to judge of the fruits, conduct, 
and lives of other men, being faithful to the admonitions of duty, we shall un- 
doubtedly be favored with a spirit of discernment, so much needed in this 
degenerate age ; to a proper understanding of the true position of professing 
Christendom, and qualified to administer suitable advice and counsel to the 
various states of the churches and of individuals ; in the lively hope that at 
least a few faithful ones may be found to stem, not only the torrent of vice, 
immorality, and profanity of every grade, but in the purity of their lives 
hold up to the gaze of an admiring world, the simplicity of a religion uncon- 
taminated by the spirit of an earthly mind. When the soul becomes filled 
with the energy of divine love, it soars above all mundane enjoyments ; those 
dispositions which originate in heaven occupy the place intended for them, 
and a new birth is accomplished, all things become new, all things of God. 
The whole man, body, soul and spirit, become enlisted in the cause of uni- 
versal righteousness, are elevated in the scale of being, as much above the 
mass of mind, as the heavens are higher than the earth, moving onward under 
a galaxy of light, the reflected rays shining on the just man's path, surround 
him with a halo of glory above the brightness of the sun. 

It is to the all-sufficiency of the grace of God, in the important work of the 
soul's salvation, that the nations of the earth are called. 




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